BEYOND  THE  OLD  FRONTIER 


BEYOND 
THE  OLD  FRONTIER 

ADVENTURES    OF 

INDIAN-FIGHTERS,    HUNTERS,    AND 

FUR-TRADERS 


BY 

GEORGE  BIRD  GRINNELL 

AUTHOR  OF 
'  TRAILS  OB  THE  PATHFINDERS,"    '  BLACKFEET  INDIAN  STORIES,"  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1913 


^^•^>' 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published  September,  1913 


PREFACE 

To-day  the  vast  territory  lying  between  the  Mississippi 
River  and  the  Pacific  Ocean  is  occupied  by  many  milHons 
of  people.  Fifty  years  ago,  except  on  the  Pacific  slope,  it 
had  few  white  inhabitants.  Then  it  was  the  Far  West,  be- 
yond the  frontier,  the  Indian  country — the  unknown.  A 
journey  into  it  was  believed  to  be  full  of  peril.  In  the  minds 
of  the  general  public  it  was  as  far  away  as  Central  China  is 
to-day. 

Beyond  the  great  river  which  bounded  it  on  the  east  was 
a  fringe  of  settlements.  Scattered  through  the  more  distant 
country  were  the  trading-posts  to  which  the  trapper  brought 
his  furs.  Forts  Garry,  Benton,  Union,  Laramie,  Bridger,  and 
Bent  were  some  of  these.  There  were  a  few  army  posts,  and 
as  time  went  on  others  were  established. 

Gold  had  been  discovered  in  California,  and  a  wild  rush  of 
people  anxious  to  better  their  condition  had  started  across 
the  plains,  bound  for  the  distant  Eldorado.  It  was  a  curi- 
ously mixed  population  that  set  out  on  this  long  journey. 
Farmers  from  New  England,  business  men  and  clerks  from 
the  Middle  States,  planters  and  younger  sons  from  the 
South;  on  foot  and  on  horseback,  carrying  their  possessions, 
large  or  scanty,  in  vehicles  drawn  by  horses,  mules,  oxen, 
and  cows,  they  struggled  westward.  They  endured  enor- 
mous toils;  perpetually  in  fear  of  attacks  by  Indians,  meeting 

V 

,       268738 


vi  Preface 

the  dangers,  delays,  and  perplexities  of  wild  men,  strange 
surroundings,  rough  travelling,  swollen  streams,  and  ex- 
hausted live-stock. 

For  many  years  the  roads  over  which  they  had  passed 
were  marked  by  the  skeletons  of  animals,  by  broken-down 
wagons,  by  furniture  and  household  goods,  thrown  away  to 
lighten  the  loads  dragged  by  their  feeble  teams.  Along  these 
deep-worn  roads  were  the  graves  of  those  who  had  perished 
on  the  way;  sometimes  mere  mounds  of  earth,  hardly  show- 
ing on  the  level  prairie,  or  perhaps  marked  by  a  bit  of  board 
thrust  in  the  ground,  bearing  a  pencilled  name  and  date, 
which  the  winter's  storms  would  soon  obliterate. 

Gold  was  discovered  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  vil- 
lage of  Denver  was  established,  and  along  the  mountain 
streams  the  prospector  worked  with  pick  and  shovel  and  pan, 
and  wore  away  his  strength  and  his  courage  in  hunting  for 
the  gold  that  often  he  did  not  find.  Montana  also  began  to 
yield  gold,  and  Salmon  River  and  Alder  Gulch  were  at  the 
beginnings  of  their  fame.  Steam-boat  traffic  on  the  upper 
Missouri  River,  at  first  established  for  the  transportation  of 
furs,  gave  easy  access  to  the  Montana  mines.  Stages  were 
running  across  the  continent,  and  the  pony  express  had  been 
established. 

Between  1853  and  1863  the  plains  and  mountains  of  the 
West  began  to  receive  a  sedentary  population  and  to  prepare 
for  that  startling  development  which  began  about  a  genera- 
tion later. 

To  most  people  who  now  Inhabit  the  Western  country  the 
struggles  of  those  early  years  are  still  unknown.  Industri- 
ous, energetic,  fertile  in  resources,  they  live  their  lives  without 
a  thought  of  the  distant  past,  without  considering  the  con- 


Preface  vii 

ditions  which  made  possible  existence  as  it  is  to-day.  They 
are  sturdy  Americans  absorbed  in  the  diverse  problems  which 
they  have  to  meet,  and,  with  astonishing  success,  devoting 
themselves  to  the  solution  of  those  problems.  This  is  as  it 
should  be,  yet  it  is  worth  while  from  time  to  time  to  take  a 
look  backward,  and  to  consider  what  those  endured  who  went 
before  us.  To  most  of  us  our  own  life  is  almost  the  only 
struggle  worth  considering,  and  wrapped  up  in  our  personal 
affairs,  we  do  not  remember  the  stupendous  difficulties  faced 
by  our  forebears,  who  conquered  this  country  and  made  pos- 
sible its  development,  and  the  ease  and  luxury  in  which  we 
to-day  have  a  part. 

Not  many  years  ago  a  change  began  to  take  place  in 
the  view-point  of  many  Americans.  Far-sighted  men  and 
women  came  to  feel  that  the  history  made  by  their  fathers 
and  mothers  was  worth  preserving,  and  they  began  to  write 
and  talk  about  this.  What  they  said  fell  on  sympathetic 
ears,  and  interest  was  easily  aroused,  so  that  before  long  in 
many  of  the  Western  States  historical  societies  were  estab- 
lished, and  earnest  men  gave  time  and  effort  to  the  work  of 
inducing  the  early  settlers  to  set  down  their  recollections — 
to  describe  the  events  in  which  they  had  taken  part.  Later 
came  the  marking  of  historic  spots  and  trails  by  monuments. 

To-day  the  historical  societies  of  many  Western  States 
issue  each  year  a  volume  filled  with  material  of  great  interest 
— matter  that  will  be  of  enormous  value  to  the  historian  who 
shall  set  down  the  story  of  the  development  of  the  West. 

Since  the  accounts  which  appear  in  the  following  pages 
have  to  do  with  a  country  then  unknown,  the  explorers  who 
penetrated  it  faced  new  conditions  and  met  new  and  primi- 
tive peoples.     To  subsist  in  these  unknown  lands  they  were 


viii  Preface 

forced  to  hunt  its  animals,  and  the  purpose  which  led  them 
so  far  afield  was  the  trading  for  furs.  The  book  thus  deals 
with  a  number  of  cognate  subjects,  with  exploration,  hunt- 
ing, the  taking  of  fur,  and  Indians  in  peace  and  war;  and  in 
any  or  all  of  these  there  is  excitement  and  interest  enough. 

Let  us  look  back  at  some  of  the  happenings  in  this  forgotten 
West,  which  is  now  again  being  remembered. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


An  Early  Fur  Trader i 

Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West 39 

When  Beaver  Skins  were  Money 125 

George  Frederick  Ruxton,  Hunter 191 

A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps 235 

The  Solitary  Hunter 275 

The  Council  at  Fort  Benton 323 

Index 365 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Among  the  Buffalo Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Astoria 12 

AsSINIBOINE-PlEGAN    BaTTLE    BEFORE   THE  WaLLS   OF 

Fort  Mackenzie 34 

Black  Beaver,  Delaware  Scout 130 

George  Bent 130 

Plan  of  Bent's  Old  Fort 134 

General  S.  W.  Kearny 162 

Kit  Carson 164 

Indian  Signalling  "Buffalo  Discovered"   .     .     .  222 

Skinning  a  Buffalo 232 

Buffalo  Herd  near  Lake  Jessie,  Upper  Missouri 

River 244 

A  Cheyenne  Indian  Camp 258 

"Bison  and  Bull,  now  in  Mortal  Combat,  Met 
Midway  with  a  Shock  that  Made  the  Earth 

Tremble" 294 

Ishmah,  the  Travois  Dog 302 


AN  EARLY  FUR  TRADER 

ONE  hundred  years  ago  little  more  was  known  of 
the  Pacific  coast  than  that  the  land  ended  at 
the  edge  of  the  wide  ocean,  already  furrowed 
by  the  keels  of  explorers,  whalers,  and  traders. 

On  the  north,  Alexander  McKenzie  had  reached  the 
salt  water,  and  a  dozen  years  later  Lewis  and  Clark 
had  come  to  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia.  A  few  years 
after  that  came  the  Astor  settlement  at  Astoria,  soon 
— in  1813 — to  be  handed  over  to  the  British,  to  the 
Northwest  Company,  which  remained  in  control  there 
until  its  consohdation  with  the  Hudson  Bay  Company 
in  1821. 

One  of  the  first  commercial  adventurers  to  the 
Columbia  River,  and  one  of  the  first  men  engaged  by 
John  Jacob  Astor  for  his  far  western  fur-trading  expe- 
ditions, was  Alexander  Ross,  a  Scotchman,  who  came 
to  Canada  in  early  life,  spent  more  than  forty-four 
years  in  the  fur  trade,  and  finally  died  in  the  Red  River 
settlement  in  1856.  Unhke  most  fur  traders,  he  had 
the  energy  and  the  interest,  in  the  later  years  of  his 
life,  to  set  down  an  account  of  what  he  had  seen  and 
done  during  those  early  years  of  anxiety,  hard  work, 

3 


Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 


and  success.  His  story  "is  not  an  arm-chair  narrative 
derived  from  hearsay  tales,  but  the  result  of  practical 
experience  on  the  spot."  During  most  of  the  time 
while  engaged  in  trading  with  the  savage  tribes  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains  he  was  a  leader;  and  the 
success  or  failure  of  his  expeditions — often  the  Hves  of 
his  men  and  himself — depended  on  what  he  thought, 
did,  and  said.  He  was  a  man  of  high  courage,  unfail- 
ing energy,  and  close  observation.  His  was  serious 
work,  yet  he  possessed  some  sense  of  humor,  which, 
however,  he  allows  to  appear  only  now  and  then  in  his 
books.  As  a  close  observer  stationed  in  the  midst  of 
things  and  admirably  acquainted  with  conditions,  he 
saw  the  blunders  made  by  Mr.  Astor  and  criticised 
them  freely;  yet  he  was  always  loyal  to  his  chief,  and 
speaks  with  apparent  contempt  of  those  other  men  of 
the  north,  hired  by  Mr.  Astor  for  their  great  experi- 
ence in  the  fur  trade,  who,  when  the  War  of  1812  broke 
out  and  the  Northwesters  descended  on  Astoria,  seemed 
glad  to  desert  their  employer  and  to  renew  their  alle- 
giance to  the  company  that  they  had  left  for  Astor's 
higher  pay  and  greater  privileges. 

Ross  wrote  three  books  which  are  extraordinarily 
full  of  information,  and  most  useful  as  accurate  descrip- 
tions of  early  conditions  in  the  country  which  is  now 
the  Northwestern  United  States.  These  are  Advent- 
ures on  the  Oregon  or  Columbia  River,  Fur  Hunters  of 
the  Far  West,  and,  finally,  an  account  of  The  Red  River 
Settlement.     These  three  books  give  us  in  more  or  less 


An  Early  Fur  Trader 


connected  form  a  history  of  the  Columbia  River  and 
the  region  about  Old  Fort  Garry — now  Winnipeg — a 
history  far  better  than  anything  that  has  ever  been  set 
down. 

The  first  book  deals  chiefly  with  the  history  of  Mr. 
Astor's  enterprise  from  its  beginning  in  1809  until  the 
taking  over  of  the  trading-post  by  the  Northwest 
Company,  the  change  of  name  to  Fort  George,  the 
sale  of  the  property  of  the  Astor  Company,  and  the 
departure  on  April  3,  18 14,  of  Mr.  Hunt,  Astor's  rep- 
resentative, and  the  few  men  that  went  with  him. 
After  this,  the  Pacific  Fur  Company  now  being  at  an 
end,  Ross,  Cox,  and  McLellan  entered  the  service  of  the 
Northwest  Company. 

The  American  Fur  Company,  established  by  Mr. 
Astor,  began  operations  in  1809.  One  after  another, 
other  fur-trading  companies  were  absorbed,  until  Astor 
saw  himself  at  the  head  of  all  the  fur  trade  south  of 
Canada,  with  the  possible  hope  of  reaching  out  for  the 
trade  of  the  northern  country  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. West  of  that  range  was  a  vast  field  as  yet  almost 
untouched.  True,  the  Russians  had  trading-posts  in 
what  was  then  Russian  America,  and  sent  the  furs 
gathered  there  direct  to  China.  True,  also,  that  some 
American  coasting  vessels  on  the  Pacific  secured  a  few 
furs  which  they  took  to  China,  but  this  hardly  touched 
the  possibilities  of  half  a  continent.  Astor  clearly  saw 
that,  if  systematized  and  carefully  managed,  this  desul- 
tory traffic  would  be  enormously  profitable,  and  this  led 


Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 


him  to  organize  the  Pacific  Fur  Company,  the  chief 
station  of  which  was  to  be  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
River.  That  station  might  be  connected  with  others 
on  the  Atlantic  water-shed  by  a  chain  of  trading-posts 
across  the  continent,  and  such  a  combination,  he  be- 
lieved, would  control  the  whole  American  fur  trade. 
Furs  could  be  shipped  in  either  direction — down  the 
Missouri,  eastward;  or  to  the  west,  down  the  Oregon, 
to  go  to  China. 

Understanding  the  wide  experience  of  the  northern 
fur  traders,  and  with  a  view  also  to  lessening  the  fric- 
tion which  might  exist  between  the  British  and  the 
American  governments  along  the  border,  Astor  engaged 
as  field-workers  for  this  far  western  service  a  number 
of  the  retired  partners  of  the  Northwest  Company. 
Such  men  as  McKay,  McKenzie,  McDougall,  and 
Stuart  were  glad  to  become  interested  with  him  in  the 
enterprise.  Astor  furnished  the  capital,  amounting  to 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars;  there  were  ten  partners. 
The  agreement  was  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  with 
the  proviso  that  if  the  project  proved  impractical  or 
unprofitable  after  five  years  it  might  be  dissolved. 
For  these  first  five  years,  however,  Astor  was  to  bear  all 
the  expenses  and  losses,  the  other  partners  furnishing 
only  their  time  and  labor.  The  nine  partners  outside 
of  Mr.  Astor  and  Mr.  Hunt  each  held  four  shares  of  the 
stock  of  two  thousand  dollars  each,  while  Astor  held 
fifty,  and  Hunt,  as  his  representative  and  chief  man- 
ager,  five.     The  remaining  shares  were   reserved   for 


An  Early  Fur  Trader 


such  clerks  as  might  join  the  concern  as  adventurers, 
without  other  remuneration  than  their  chances  of  suc- 
cess at  the  end  of  five  years'  trial.  As  was  natural, 
Astor  controlled  the  enterprise.  His  manager  was  Wil- 
son Price  Hunt,  a  man  wholly  without  experience  in 
the  Indian  trade,  but  energetic,  active,  and  persevering. 

Ross  learned  of  the  project  from  Mr.  McKay,  who 
asked  him  to  go  to  Montreal  to  talk  about  the  matter. 
Ross  was  asked  to  join  the  expedition,  and  was  the  first 
one  to  do  so,  and  with  Robert  Stuart  made  so  good  a 
bargain  that  these  two  were  promised  their  promotion 
at  the  end  of  three  years.  Soon  after  the  arrangements 
were  completed  a  party  under  Mr.  Hunt  started  across 
the  continent  overland,  while  another  party  headed  by 
McKay  sailed,  September  lO,  1810,  for  the  mouth  of 
the  Columbia  River. 

The  sorrows  of  that  voyage  have  often  been  described. 
Captain  Thorn,  in  command  of  the  "Tonquin,"  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  man  impossible  to  get  along  with. 
They  went  around  the  Horn,  touched  at  the  Sandwich 
Islands,  and  at  last  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia 
River.  There  had  been  continual  quarrels  between 
the  captain,  his  passengers,  and  the  officers  of  the  ship. 

At  last,  however,  the  "Tonquin"  was  off"  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  River,  a  rough  and  stormy  spot,  of 
many  sand-bars  and  high  surf,  and  the  weather  was 
worse  in  spring  than  at  any  other  time  of  the  year.  It 
was  now  March  or  April.  Here  there  was  constant 
mismanagement;  boats  were  sent  out  to  reconnoitre, 


8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

and  people  were  lost;  the  ship  two  or  three  times  struck 
the  bottom,  became  unmanageable,  and  was  finally 
carried  by  the  tide  into  Baker's  Bay.  There,  sheltered 
from  the  sea,  it  was  safe. 

The  fur  traders  got  ashore  and  began  to  look  for  the 
missing  boats  and  men.  During  this  journey  Ross 
learned  something  about  the  Indians'  management  of 
their  canoes. 

"We  had  on  this  occasion  a  specimen  of  Chinooke 
navigation.  While  crossing  the  river  in  an  Indian 
canoe,  on  our  way  back  to  the  ship,  we  were  suddenly 
overtaken  by  a  storm,  and  our  craft  was  upset  in  the 
middle  of  the  passage.  The  expertness  of  the  natives 
in  their  favorite  element  was  here  put  to  the  test.  At 
this  time  we  were  upwards  of  two  miles  from  the  shore, 
while  eight  persons  unable  to  swim  were  floating  in 
every  direction;  coats,  hats,  and  everything  else  adrift, 
and  all  depending  on  the  fidelity  of  the  four  Indians 
who  undertook  to  carry  us  over;  yet,  notwithstanding 
the  roughness  of  the  water,  and  the  wind  blowing  a  gale 
at  the  time,  these  poor  fellows  kept  swimming  about 
like  so  many  fishes,  righted  the  canoe,  and  got  us  all 
into  her  again,  while  they  themselves  staid  in  the  water, 
with  one  hand  on  the  canoe  and  the  other  paddling. 
In  this  manner  they  supported  themselves,  tossing  to 
and  fro,  till  we  bailed  the  water  out  of  our  frail  craft,  and 
got  under  way  again.  Here  it  was  that  the  Indians 
showed  the  skill  and  dexterity  peculiar  to  them.  The 
instant  the  canoe  rose  on  the  top  of  a  wave,  those  on  the 


An  Early  Fur  Trader 


windward  side  darted  down  their  long  paddles  to  the 
armpits  in  the  water  to  prevent  her  from  upsetting; 
while  those  on  the  leeside  at  the  same  moment  pulled 
theirs  up,  but  kept  ready  as  soon  as  the  wave  had  passed 
under  her  to  thrust  them  down  again  in  a  similar  man- 
ner, and  thus  by  their  alternate  movements  they  kept 
the  canoe  steady,  so  that  we  got  safe  to  shore  without 
another  upset,  and  with  the  loss  of  only  a  few  articles 
of  clothing;  but  we  suffered  severely  from  wet  and  cold. 

"During  this  time  the  Indians  from  the  village  which 
we  had  left,  seeing  our  critical  situation,  had  manned 
and  sent  off  two  canoes  to  our  assistance.  One  of  the 
boats  from  the  ship  was  also  despatched  for  the  same 
purpose;  but  all  would  have  proved  too  late  had  we 
not  been  fortunate  enough  of  ourselves  to  weather 
the   storm." 

A  few  days  after  this  the  long  boat  was  swamped  off 
Chinook  Point,  and  ten  persons  were  saved  by  these 
Chinooks. 

The  fur  traders  and  their  property  being  at  last 
ashore,  they  began  to  look  about  for  a  place  where 
their  fort  should  be  built.  The  site  selected  was  a 
knoll  about  twelve  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  inlet, 
and  between  Point  George  on  the  west  and  Tonquin 
Point  on  the  east.  They  went  about  their  work  with 
dogged  energy,  but  not  cheerfully.  They  were  glad  to 
be  on  shore  and  free  from  the  tyranny  of  Captain 
Thorn,  but  saddened  by  the  misfortunes  they  had 
met  with — the  loss  of  the  men  in  landing. 


lo  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Duncan  McDougall,  an  old  Northwester,  was  in 
command.  He  was  a  man  of  great  experience,  but 
Ross  calls  him  a  man  of  only  ordinary  capacity  and 
unfit  to  command  men.  He  became  famous  some  years 
later  by  having  the  credit  of  conniving  with  the  North- 
west Company  to  swindle  Mr.  Astor  out  of  most  of 
his  property  at  Astoria. 

The  little  company  that  settled  down  in  a  new  coun- 
try amid  wholly  unaccustomed  surroundings  had  before 
it  a  difficult — almost  an  impossible — task. 

"The  place  thus  selected  for  the  emporium  of  the 
west,  might  challenge  the  whole  continent  to  produce 
a  spot  of  equal  extent  presenting  more  difficulties  to 
the  settler:  studded  with  gigantic  trees  of  almost 
incredible  size,  many  of  them  measuring  fifty  feet  in 
girth,  and  so  close  together,  and  intermingled  with 
huge  rocks,  as  to  make  it  a  work  of  no  ordinary  labour 
to  level  and  clear  the  ground.  With  this  task  before 
us,  every  man,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  was 
armed  with  an  axe  in  one  hand  and  a  gun  in  the  other; 
the  former  for  attacking  the  woods,  the  latter  for  de- 
fence against  the  savage  hordes  which  were  constantly 
prowling  about.  In  the  garb  of  labourers,  and  in  the 
sweat  of  our  brow,  we  now  commenced  earning  our 
bread.  In  this  manner  we  all  kept  toiling  and  tearing 
away,  from  sunrise  till  sunset — from  Monday  till 
Saturday;  and  during  the  nights  we  kept  watch  with- 
out intermission.  .  .  . 

**Many  of  the  party  had  never  handled  an  axe  be- 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  ii 

fore,  and  but  few  of  them  knew  how  to  use  a  gun,  but 
necessity,  the  mother  of  invention,  soon  taught  us 
both.  After  placing  our  guns  in  some  secure  place  at 
hand,  and  viewing  the  height  and  the  breadth  of  the 
tree  to  be  cut  down,  the  party,  with  some  labour,  would 
erect  a  scaffold  round  it;  this  done,  four  men — for  that 
was  the  number  appointed  to  each  of  those  huge  trees — 
would  then  mount  the  scaffold,  and  commence  cutting, 
at  the  height  of  eight  or  ten  feet  from  the  ground,  the 
handles  of  our  axes  varying,  according  to  circumstances, 
from  two  and  a  half  to  five  feet  in  length.  At  every 
other  stroke,  a  look  was  cast  round,  to  see  that  all  was 
safe;  but  the  least  rustling  among  the  bushes  caused  a 
general  stop;  more  or  less  time  was  thus  lost  in  anxious 
suspense.  After  listening  and  looking  round,  the  party 
resumed  their  labour,  cutting  and  looking  about  alter- 
nately. In  this  manner  the  day  would  be  spent,  and 
often  to  little  purpose:  as  night  often  set  in  before  the 
tree  begun  with  in  the  morning  was  half  cut  down. 
Indeed,  it  sometimes  required  two  days,  or  more,  to 
fell  one  tree;  but  when  nearly  cut  through,  it  would  be 
viewed  fifty  different  times,  and  from  as  many  different 
positions,  to  ascertain  where  it  was  likely  to  fall,  and 
to  warn  parties  of  the  danger." 

The  labor  that  they  had  undertaken  was  hard  and 
unceasing,  the  climate  one  of  constant  rains  and  fogs, 
the  food  was  merely  fish  and  wild  roots;  the  Indians 
were  so  troublesome  that  in  two  months  three  of  their 
men  had  been  killed  by  them,  others  wounded  by  the 


12  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

fall  of  trees,  and  one  had  his  hand  blown  off  by  gun- 
powder. All  this  produced  discontent — four  men  de- 
serted and  were  captured  by  the  Indians,  and  a  little 
later  six  more  deserted,  but  were  brought  back  by  a 
friendly  Indian, 

Food  and  shelter  were  scanty  and  poor  in  quality. 
Heretofore  all  remonstrances  to  the  man  in  command 
had  received  no  attention,  but  at  last  even  he  realized 
the  situation  and  distributed  tents  among  the  sick,  and 
made  some  eflFort  to  improve  the  food. 

As  time  passed  and  the  white  men  began  to  learn 
something  of  the  Chinook  nature,  it  was  discovered  that 
these  people,  their  immediate  neighbors,  had  been  tell- 
ing the  more  distant  Indians  that  the  white  men  were 
enemies,  just  as  they  had  been  telling  the  white  people 
that  these  distant  tribes  were  enemies.  The  result  of 
this  was  that  the  Chinooks  were  purchasing  furs  from 
the  distant  tribes  and  selHng  them  to  the  traders  at  a 
handsome  profit.  As  soon  as  this  discovery  was  made, 
parties  were  sent  out  to  learn  something  of  these  more 
distant  tribes,  to  gain  their  confidence  and  to  discover 
what  they  could  about  the  country  farther  off.  These 
parties,  though  often  in  danger,  finally  succeeded  in 
establishing  friendly  relations  with  those  other  tribes, 
but  for  a  long  time  the  impression  given  by  the  Chi- 
nooks did  not  wear  off. 

It  was  in  May  that  they  laid  the  foundation  of  their 
first  building  and  named  the  establishment  Astoria, 
in  honor  of  the  projector  of  the  enterprise.     The  labor 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  13 

of  building  was  extraordinary,  for  it  was  impossible 
for  them  to  use  the  enormous  trees  close  to  the  fort, 
and  they  were  obliged  to  go  back  into  the  interior  to 
find  logs  small  enough  for  building.  These  logs  were 
transported  on  their  shoulders,  or  dragged  along  over 
the  ground,  and  this  last  method  was  so  eflPective  that 
in  six  days  eight  men  harnessed  as  a  team  brought  to 
the  site  all  the  timber  required  for  a  building  sixty 
feet  long  by  twenty-six  feet  broad. 

On  the  first  of  June  the  "Tonquin"  left  Astoria  for  a 
trading  voyage  to  the  north.  She  carried  with  her 
most  of  her  cargo,  only  a  little  having  been  landed,  the 
captain  intending  to  complete  the  unloading  on  his 
return.  A  little  later  the  ship  was  captured  by  the 
Indians  and  with  all  on  board  blown  up,  and  the  whole 
crew — among  them  McKay — were  lost,  and,  of  course, 
the  cargo  destroyed. 

In  mid-July  the  post  received  a  visit  from  Mr. 
Thompson,  a  Northwester,  who  came  down  the  Co- 
lumbia in  a  light  canoe  with  a  crew  of  men,  chiefly  from 
Montreal.  McDougall  received  him  with  great  cord- 
iality, somewhat  to  the  astonishment  of  the  former 
Northwesters,  who,  now  in  the  service  of  the  Pacific 
Fur  Company,  regarded  the  Northwesters  as  rivals, 
and  so  enemies.  Toward  the  end  of  July  a  small  ex- 
pedition, fitted  out  with  the  view  of  establishing  a  trad- 
ing-post in  the  interior,  started  up  the  Columbia  River 
in  company  with  the  returning  Mr.  Thompson.  Un- 
derstanding very  little  about  navigation  and  these  new 


14  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

waters,  and  as  little  about  the  management  of  the  Chi- 
nook canoe,  the  first  day  of  their  travel  was  one  of  con- 
stant toil,  striving  to  avoid  the  dangers  of  running 
aground  on  sand-banks  and  of  being  thrown  on  the 
shore.  During  the  next  few  days  they  passed  Bellevue 
Point  and  Point  Vancouver,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  Cas- 
cades they  found  a  great  body  of  Indians  waiting  for 
them  to  talk  and  to  smoke.  The  labor  of  the  portage 
was  extreme,  and  the  Indians  played  all  sorts  of  tricks 
on  the  white  men,  evidently  trying  to  see  just  how  far 
they  would  be  allowed  to  go.     Here  is  an  example: 

"Not  being  accustomed  myself  to  carry,  I  had  of 
course,  as  well  as  some  others,  to  stand  sentinel;  but 
seeing  the  rest  almost  wearied  to  death,  I  took  hold  of 
a  roll  of  tobacco,  and  after  adjusting  it  on  my  shoulder, 
and  holding  it  fast  with  one  hand,  I  moved  on  to  ascend 
the  first  bank;  at  the  top  of  which,  however,  I  stood 
breathless,  and  could  proceed  no  farther.  In  this  awk- 
ward plight,  I  met  an  Indian,  and  made  signs  to  him  to 
convey  the  tobacco  across,  and  that  I  would  give  him 
all  the  buttons  on  my  coat;  but  he  shook  his  head  and 
refused.  Thinking  the  fellow  did  not  understand  me, 
I  threw  the  tobacco  down,  and  pointing  to  the  buttons 
one  by  one,  at  last  he  consented,  and  off  he  set  at  a  full 
trot,  and  I  after  him;  but  just  as  we  had  reached  his 
camp  at  the  other  end,  he  pitched  it  down  a  precipice  of 
two  hundred  feet  in  height,  and  left  me  to  recover  it  the 
best  way  I  could.  Off  I  started  after  my  tobacco;  and  if 
I  was  out  of  breath  after  getting  up  the  first  bank,  I  was 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  15 

ten  times  more  so  now.  During  my  scrambling  among 
the  rocks  to  recover  my  tobacco,  not  only  the  wag  that 
played  me  the  trick,  but  fifty  others,  indulged  in  a 
hearty  laugh  at  my  expense;  but  the  best  of  it  was,  the 
fellow  came  for  his  payment,  and  wished  to  get  not  only 
the  buttons  but  the  coat  along  with  them.  I  was  for 
giving  him — what  he  richly  deserved — buttons  of 
another  mould;  but  peace  in  our  present  situation  was 
deemed  the  better  policy:  so  the  rogue  got  the  buttons, 
and  we  saw  him  no  more." 

At  the  end  of  the  month  Thompson  left  them  to 
hurry  on  eastward,  and  in  the  first  days  of  August  they 
reached  a  point  on  the  river  where  they  met  horse 
Indians  in  considerable  numbers.  With  these  people 
they  arranged  to  have  the  goods  carried  over  the  port- 
age, and  the  Indians  accepted  the  offer,  and  were  so 
swift  to  do  it  that  "in  less  than  ten  minutes  after  the 
whole  cavalcade,  goods  and  all,  disappeared,  leaving  us 
standing  in  suspense  and  amazement."  However,  at 
the  other  end  of  the  portage  the  property  was  found 
safe  and  the  chiefs  were  guarding  it.  Nevertheless, 
that  night  was  passed  by  the  traders  in  some  alarm,  but 
the  danger,  whatever  it  was,  was  put  off  when  they  per- 
suaded the  chiefs  of  the  Indians  to  come  and  sit  within 
their  circle,  and  to  harangue  to  their  people  during 
the  night. 

This  portage  was  nine  miles  long,  and,  although  their 
goods  had  been  transported,  the  canoes  and  the  canoe 
tackle,  boats,  and  cooking  utensils  remained  to  be  car- 


1 6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ried  over.  Four  times  daily  they  had  to  make  this 
journey,  heavily  loaded,  under  a  burning  sun. 

The  main  camp  of  the  Indians  here  was  fully  occu- 
pied only  during  the  salmon  season,  at  which  time  it 
held  about  three  thousand  people,  but  the  constant  in- 
habitants did  not  exceed  one  hundred  persons,  whom 
Ross  called  Wy-am-pams,  a  tribe  of  Shahaptin  stock. 
These  horse  Indians  were  without  doubt  Nez-Perces  or 
their  representatives. 

The  traders  had  no  choice  of  roads  in  getting  into 
the  country;  and  in  following  up  the  Columbia  River 
they  followed  the  course  of  the  salmon,  on  which  the 
Indians  depended  for  food,  and  came  to  camp  after 
camp  of  people,  many  of  whom  had  never  before  seen 
white  men.  By  August  8  they  had  trouble.  The 
canoes,  sailing  with  a  fair  wind,  were  overtaken  by  a 
squall,  and  everything  was  wet.  Very  incautiously 
they  commenced  to  spread  out  these  wet  things  to  dry 
them,  and  were  at  once  surrounded  by  covetous  Indians. 
They  lost  no  time  in  bundling  their  stuff  together  and 
putting  it  into  the  canoes,  and,  **in  order  to  amuse  for  a 
moment,  and  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  crowd,  I  laid 
hold  of  an  axe,  and  set  it  up  at  the  distance  of  eighty 
yards,  then  taking  up  my  rifle,  drove  a  ball  through 
it."  This  manoeuvre  was  successful,  and  while  the 
Indians  were  staring  at  the  marvel  the  canoes  got  off. 
Near  the  mouth  of  the  Walla  Walla  the  traders  dis- 
covered a  large  body  of  men  coming  toward  them, 
all  armed  and  painted  and  preceded  by  three  chiefs. 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  17 

who  made  elaborate  speeches  and  smoked  with  them. 
These  were  various  tribes  of  Shahaptin  stock,  fine  peo- 
ple, well  dressed  and  possessed  of  many  horses,  four 
thousand  being  within  sight  of  the  camp.  They  were 
extremely  friendly,  and  their  chief,  now  and  at  later 
times,  was  helpful  to  the  traders. 

The  next  day  they  came  to  the  point  where  the  two 
main  forks  of  the  Columbia  join — Clark's  Fork  on  the 
north  and  Lewis  Fork  on  the  south — and  there  in  the 
midst  of  the  Indian  camp  stood  a  British  flag,  planted  by 
Mr.  Thompson,  who  had  laid  claim  to  the  country  north 
of  the  forks  as  British  territory.  He  had  left  with  the 
Indians  a  paper  forbidding  the  subjects  of  other  countries 
to  trade  north  of  this  point,  and  the  Indians  seemed 
disposed  to  uphold  this  order.  The  Astorians  wished  to 
go  up  Clark's  Fork,  and  in  the  afternoon  the  chiefs  held 
a  council,  at  which  Ross  and  Stuart  were  present,  and 
consent  to  go  forward  was  gained.  The  people  were 
friendly,  and  Tummatapam,  the  chief  before  alluded 
to,  was  a  kindly  man  and  seemed  really  to  like  the 
fur  traders,  who  treated  him  very  well. 

Journeying  up  the  North  Fork,  they  were  overtaken 
after  a  time  by  three  mounted  Walla  Walla  Indians, 
who  gave  them  a  bag  of  shot  which  they  had  left  be- 
hind at  their  encampment  of  the  night  before;  but  on 
this  day  they  saw  only  a  few  Indians  and  set  no  guard 
at  night.     The  next  day  they  were  early  afloat. 

"On  the  17th,  we  were  paddling  along  at  daylight. 
On  putting  on  shore  to  breakfast,  four  Indians  on  horse- 


1 8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

back  joined  us.  The  moment  they  ahghted,  one  set 
about  hobbhng  their  horses,  another  to  gather  small 
sticks,  a  third  to  make  a  fire,  and  the  fourth  to  catch 
fish.  For  this  purpose,  the  fisherman  cut  off  a  bit  of 
his  leathern  shirt,  about  the  size  of  a  small  bean;  then 
pulling  out  two  or  three  hairs  from  his  horse's  tail  for  a 
line,  tied  the  bit  of  leather  to  one  end  of  it,  in  place  of 
a  hook  or  fly.  Thus  prepared,  he  entered  the  river  a 
little  way,  sat  down  on  a  stone  and  began  throwing  the 
small  fish,  three  or  four  inches  long,  on  shore,  just  as 
fast  as  he  pleased;  and  while  he  was  thus  employed, 
another  picked  them  up  and  threw  them  towards  the 
fire  while  the  third  stuck  them  up  round  it  in  a  circle,  on 
small  sticks;  and  they  were  no  sooner  up  than  roasted. 
The  fellows  then  sitting  down,  swallowed  them — heads, 
tails,  bones,  guts,  fins,  and  all,  in  no  time,  just  as  one 
would  swallow  the  yolk  of  an  egg.  Now  all  this  was 
but  the  work  of  a  few  minutes;  and  before  our  man 
had  his  kettle  ready  for  the  fire,  the  Indians  were 
already  eating  their  breakfast.  When  the  fish  had  hold 
of  the  bit  of  wet  leather,  or  bait,  their  teeth  got  en- 
tangled in  it,  so  as  to  give  time  to  jerk  them  on 
shore,  which  was  to  us  a  new  mode  of  anghng;  fire 
produced  by  the  friction  of  two  bits  of  wood  was  also 
a  novelty;  but  what  surprised  us  most  of  all,  was  the 
regularity  with  which  they  proceeded,  and  the  quick- 
ness of  the  whole  process,  which  actually  took  them 
less  time  to  perform,  than  it  has  taken  me  to  note  it 
down." 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  19 

A  little  later  in  the  day  came  a  pathetic  example  of 
the  simplicity  of  the  Indians  and  their  extraordinary 
belief  in  the  powers  of  the  strange  white  people,  when 
their  parents  brought  to  the  fur-traders  two  dead  chil- 
dren and  asked  that  they  restore  them  to  life,  for  which 
favor  a  horse  was  to  be  given.  At  Priest  Rapids  the 
travellers  were  met  by  a  large  throng  of  Indians  who 
were  perfectly  friendly,  smoked  with  them,  and  per- 
formed the  usual  friendly  acts  of  singing  and  dancing. 
The  journey  up  the  river  continued  to  be  strenuous,  for 
the  current  was  swift  and  the  rapids  many.  Horses 
were  plentiful  here  and  the  Indians  were  eager  to  sell 
them,  but  the  traders,  travelling  by  canoe,  had  no  pos- 
sible use  for  them  and  declined  to  purchase  any  more. 
A  day  or  two  after  passing  the  Pisscow  River,  "the  ibex, 
the  white  musk  goat,"  is  Inentioned,  one  of  the  early 
references  to  this  species,  and  speaking  of  one  of  its 
striking  characters.  Now  soon  they  met  with  Indians 
who  had  in  their  possession  a  gun,  tobacco,  and  some 
other  articles  which  they  said  had  been  purchased  from 
white  people,  no  doubt  a  party  of  Northwesters. 
The  first  of  September  had  come,  and  it  was  now  time 
to  look  out  for  winter-quarters,  if  buildings  were  to  be 
erected  which  could  be  occupied  during  the  winter. 
The  situation  chosen  was  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Oakinacken — Okanagan — River  at  the  end  of  a  range  of 
high,  rocky,  wooded  hills.  Here  a  small  dwelling-house 
was  begun,  but  before  it  was  finished  four  men  were 
sent  back  to  Astoria,  and  four  others  set  off  for  the 


20  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

head-waters  of  the  Okanagan,^  while  Ross  himself  and 
one  small  dog  called  Weasel  remained  to  hold  the  fort. 

We  may  imagine  that  his  situation  was  an  uncom- 
fortable one,  and  he  fully  appreciated  its  horrors,  "alone 
in  this  unhallowed  wilderness,  without  friend  or  white 
man  within  hundreds  of  miles  of  me,  surrounded  by 
savages  who  had  never  seen  a  white  man,  where  every 
day  seemed  a  week,  every  night  a  month.  I  pined,  I 
languished,  my  head  turned  gray,  and  in  a  brief  space 
ten  years  were  added  to  my  age.  Yet  man  is  born  to 
endure,  and  my  only  consolation  was  in  my  Bible." 

As  soon  as  the  others  were  gone  Ross  began  to  patch 
up  the  house  and  put  the  few  goods  left  him  into  a  kind 
of  cellar  which  he  made;  then  he  set  to  work  to  learn 
the  language  of  the  Indians,  and  wrote  vocabulary  after 
vocabulary.  The  task  was  hard  and  wearisome,  but 
his  progress  was  encouraging. 

A  crowd  of  inquisitive  Indians  visited  the  place  to 
see  this  lonely  white  man.  Ross  associated  with  them, 
traded  with  them,  and  at  last  began  to  talk  to  them 
and  finally  to  comprehend  their  speech,  but  the  even- 
ings were  long  and  the  winter  dreary.  Each  night  he 
primed  his  gun  and  pistol  and  barricaded  his  door,  and 
the  kindly  Indians  always  left  the  house  at  dusk.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Indians  themselves  feared  attacks 
by  enemies,  and  often  gave  him  to  understand  that 
there  was  danger. 

"One  night  I  was  suddenly  awakened  out  my  sleep 

*  Variously  spelled  to-day,  Okanagan,  Okinagan,  and  Okanogan. 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  21 

by  the  unusual  noise  and  continual  barking  of  Weasel, 
running  backwards  and  forwards  through  the  house. 
Half  asleep,  half  awake,  I  felt  greatly  agitated  and 
alarmed.  My  faithful  gun  and  pistol  were  at  hand,  for 
they  lay  always  at  my  side  in  bed;  but  then  all  was 
dark,  I  could  see  nothing,  could  hear  nothing  but 
the  barking  of  Weasel,  which  was  continually  growing 
louder  and  louder.  I  then  thought  there  must  be  some- 
body in  the  house;  for  I  was  ready  to  put  the  worst 
construction  on  appearances.  In  this  perplexing  di- 
lemma I  got  my  hand,  with  as  little  noise  as  possible, 
to  the  muzzle  of  my  gun,  and  gradually  drawing  out 
the  ramrod,  tried,  with  my  right  arm  stretched  out,  to 
stir  up  the  embers,  so  that  I  might  see;  but  here  again 
a  new  danger  presented  itself;  I  was  exposing  myself  as 
a  mark  to  a  ball  or  an  arrow,  without  the  chance  of 
defending  myself,  for  the  light  would  show  me  to  the 
enemy  before  I  could  see  my  object;  but  there  was  no 
alternative,  and  something  must  be  done.  Between 
hope  and  despair  I  managed  to  stir  up  the  ashes,  so 
that  I  could  see  little  Weasel  running  to  and  fro  to  the 
cellar-door.  I  concluded  that  the  enemy  must  be 
skulking  in  the  cellar.  I  then,  but  not  without  diffi- 
culty, got  a  candle  Hghted.  Holding  the  candle  in  my 
left  hand,  I  laid  hold  of  my  pistol.  With  the  lynx-eye 
and  wary  step  of  a  cat  ready  to  pounce  on  its  prey,  I 
advanced  rather  obliquely,  with  my  right  arm  stretched 
out  at  full  length  holding  the  cocked  pistol,  till  I  got 
to  the  cellar-door,  the  little  dog  all  the  while  making  a 


22  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

furious  noise;  when,  lo!  what  was  there  but  a  skunk  sit- 
ting on  a  roll  of  tobacco!  The  shot  blew  it  almost  to 
atoms,  and  so  delicately  perfumed  everything  in  the 
house  that  I  was  scarcely  able  to  live  in  it  for  days 
afterwards;  but  that  was  not  all,  the  trivial  incident 
was  productive  of  very  bad  consequences.  Several 
hundreds  of  Indians  being  encamped  about  the  place 
at  the  time,  no  sooner  did  they  see  the  light,  or  hear 
the  shot,  than  they  all  rushed  into  the  house,  thinking 
something  serious  had  happened.  So  far,  however, 
there  were  no  great  harm;  but  when  they  beheld  two 
rolls  of  tobacco  and  two  small  bales  of  goods,  it  ap- 
peared such  wealth  in  their  eyes  that  they  could 
scarcely  recover  from  the  surprise.  These  tempting 
articles  I  had  endeavored  all  along  to  keep  as  much 
as  possible  out  of  their  sight,  and  dealt  them  out  with 
a  sparing  hand,  and  as  long  as  the  Indians  did  not  see 
them  in  bulk  all  went  well;  but  after  the  overwhelming 
exhibition  of  so  much  property  there  was  no  satisfying 
them.  They  became  importunate  and  troublesome  for 
some  time,  and  caused  me  much  anxiety.  The  time 
fixed  for  Mr.  Stuart's  return  had  now  arrived,  and  I 
most  anxiously  looked  for  him  every  hour.  Often  had 
I  reason  to  curse  the  intrusion  of  the  skunk  into  my 
house.  After  some  time,  however,  things  settled  down 
again  to  their  usual  level,  and  good  order  and  good 
feelings  were  again  renewed  between  us." 

Stuart  did  not  come,  and  the  Indians  became  more 
bold,  and  loitered  about  the  place.     Strange  Indians 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  23 

were  constantly  arriving,  and  the  Indians  held  fre- 
quent councils.  Ross  called  a  feast  and  gave  the  In- 
dians a  reason  for  Stuart's  absence,  suggesting  that 
they  should  go  to  work  and  bring  in  furs,  in  order  that 
when  the  goods  came  they  might  have  something  with 
which  to  buy  them.  Stuart  was  gone  for  188  days, 
and  finally  returned  March  22,  1812.  During  his  ab- 
sence Ross  had  secured  1,550  beaver,  besides  other  furs, 
worth  in  the  Canton  market  2,250  pounds  sterling  and 
costing  in  the  merchandise  which  had  been  exchanged 
for  them  only  35  pounds  sterling — "a  specimen  of  our 
trade  among  the  Indians!" 

Stuart  had  gone  north  to  the  head  of  the  Okanagan 
and  had  crossed  over  to  the  south  branch  of  the  Fraser 
River  and  met  "a  powerful  nation  called  the  She 
Whaps."  There  he  had  been  detained  by  snow  and 
had  wintered  with  these  people,  among  whom  he  had 
arranged  to  estabhsh  a  trading-post.  From  the  post 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river  came  bad  news.  The  little 
schooner  "Dolly,"  the  frame  of  which  had  been  sent 
out  to  Astoria  in  the  *'Tonquin,"  was  too  small  to  be 
of  any  particular  service,  and  being  manned  by  peo- 
ple without  much  knowledge  of  seamanship  was  un- 
lucky from  the  beginning,  and  was  finally  abandoned  as 
useless  for  the  purpose  of  getting  about.  There  was 
complaint  also  of  the  quality  of  the  trade  goods  sent 
out  by  Mr.  Astor,  but  of  all  the  news  that  came  to 
the  people  up  the  river  the  most  important  was  the 
rumor  that  the  "Tonquin"  had  been  destroyed  with 


24  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

all  on  board.  The  story  of  this  destruction,  as  told 
by  Ross  Cox,  was  given  in  an  earher  volume.'  Not 
many  tears  were  shed  over  the  death  of  Captain  Thorn 
at  Astoria,  we  may  feel  sure,  but  that  McKay  should 
have  been  lost  was  a  real  sorrow  and  a  genuine  mis- 
fortune, for  McKay  was  a  man  of  great  experience 
and  of  extraordinary  force. 

In  the  meantime,  Wilson  Price  Hunt,  Astor's  chief 
assistant,  Donald  McKenzie,  and  later  Ramsay  Crooks, 
started  from  St.  Louis  to  make  the  journey  overland 
to  the  coast.  The  original  purpose  was  to  strike  the 
upper  reaches  of  the  Columbia  River  and  go  down  that 
stream  in  canoes,  but,  as  the  courses  and  character  of 
the  river  were  wholly  unknown,  all  sorts  of  difficulties 
were  encountered,  and  the  canoes  were  at  last  aban- 
doned; the  expedition  split  up  into  different  parties, 
and  a  number  of  men  were  lost.  At  last  McKenzie 
reached  Astoria  January  lo,  1812,  while  Hunt's  party 
arrived  in  February. 

At  the  end  of  March  parties  left  Astoria,  one  under 
Mr.  Reed  for  New  York  overland,  another  under  Mr. 
Farnham  to  search  for  the  goods  left  en  cache  by  Hunt 
on  his  journey,  and  a  third  under  Robert  Stuart  to 
Okanagan  with  supplies  for  that  post.  These  all 
started  together  under  the  command  of  Mr.  Stuart. 
At  the  Long  Narrows  they  got  into  difficulties  with 
the  Indians,  and  McLellan  killed  two  Indians  and  the 
others  fled.     Trouble  was  threatening,  but  peace  was  at 

*  Trails  of  the  Pathfinders,  p.  304. 


An  Early  Fur  Trader 


last  secured  by  the  gift  of  six  blankets  and  some  other 
trifles.  In  the  melee  the  despatches  which  Reed  was 
taking  to  New  York  were  lost,  and  when  they  were 
lost  that  expedition  was  at  an  end. 

A  little  later  they  were  hailed  in  English  by  some 
one  asking  them  to  come  on  shore,  and  when  they 
reached  the  bank  they  found  standing,  "like  two 
spectres,"  Crooks  and  John  Day,  who  had  been  left 
among  the  Snake  Indians  by  Mr.  Hunt  the  preceding 
autumn.  The  story  told  by  these  two  men  was  pa- 
thetic enough.  They  were  starving  most  of  the  time, 
lived  largely  on  roots,  had  been  robbed  of  rifles,  and 
would  inevitably  have  perished  had  it  not  been  for  a 
good  old  man  who  treated  them  like  a  father — killed 
a  horse  to  make  dried  meat  for  them,  and  was  about 
to  start  them  out  on  the  journey  to  St.  Louis  that 
very  day,  when  the  canoes  hove  in  sight. 
'  Mr.  Stuart  rewarded  the  old  man  to  whom  these 
men  owed  their  lives,  took  them  along  with  him 
and  returned  to  Astoria,  where  they  found  the  com- 
pany's ship  "Beaver"  just  arriving  with  a  supply  of 
goods  and  reinforcements  of  men.  It  was  now  May, 
and  a  number  of  the  partners  being  at  Astoria  it  was 
determined  that  David  Stuart  should  return  to  Okan- 
agan,  work  to  the  north,  and  establish  another  post  be- 
tween that  and  New  Caledonia,  that  McKenzie  should 
winter  on  Snake  River,  that  Clark  should  winter  at 
Spokane,  that  Robert  Stuart  should  go  overland  to 
St.  Louis  with  despatches  for  Mr.  Astor,  and  that  Mr. 


26  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Hunt  should  go  with  the  "Beaver"  to  the  Russian  set- 
tlements to  the  north.  Sixty-two  persons  left  Astoria 
for  the  interior  on  the  29th  of  June,  it  having  been 
determined  that  all  the  land  parties  should  travel  to- 
gether as  far  as  the  forks  of  the  Columbia,  where 
Lewis  River  and  Clark  River  come  together.  These 
land  parties  were  under  the  command  of  Mr.  Clark. 
Nothing  happened  until  they  reached  the  Cascades, 
where  a  few  arrows  were  shot  at  them,  but  at 
the  Long  Narrows  the  Indians  were  numerous  and 
threatening.  Mr.  Clark,  although  usually  a  man  of 
nerve,  seems  to  have  been  frightened  by  this  de- 
monstration, and  it  required  the  determination  of 
McKenzie  and  David  Stuart  to  induce  him  to  go  for- 
ward. They  got  through  the  pass  without  molesta- 
tion or  loss. 

In  looking  about  through  an  Indian  camp,  McKen- 
zie and  Stuart  saw  in  a  lodge  of  one  of  the  chiefs  the 
rifle  that  had  been  taken  away  from  Mr.  Reed  when  he 
was  wounded,  and  they  were  determined  to  have  it. 
As,  soon  as  the  Narrows  had  been  safely  passed,  Mc- 
Kenzie took  eight  men  and  went  direct  to  the  chief's 
lodge.  He  put  four  men  at  the  door  and  with  the 
other  four  entered  and  asked  for  the  stolen  rifle.  The 
chief  denied  that  it  was  in  his  lodge.  McKenzie  asked 
for  it  again  and  said  he  was  determined  to  have  it,  and 
when  it  was  not  given  up,  he  took  his  knife  and  began 
to  turn  over  and  cut  up  everything  that  came  in  his 
way  and  at  last  discovered  the  rifle,  and  after  scolding 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  27 

the  chief  returned  to  the  canoes.  No  time  was  wasted, 
and  the  Indians,  though  gathering  in  crowds,  did  noth- 
ing. The  next  day  they  camped  at  a  point  where 
Crooks  and  John  Day  had  been  robbed  of  their  arms. 
The  Indians  were  friendly  enough,  and  among  those 
who  flocked  about  the  white  men  was  the  one  who  had 
taken  John  Day's  rifle.  He  was  at  once  captured  and 
tied  up,  but  a  Httle  later  was  set  free. 

At  Walla  Walla,  Robert  Stuart  purchased  ten  horses 
from  the  Nez-Perces  and  set  out  for  St.  Louis  with 
five  men,  including  Messrs.  Crooks  and  McLellan,  who 
had  resigned  from  the  company.  David  Stuart  went 
up  the  Okanagan,  and  Ross  remained  at  the  post  at 
its  mouth,  a  Scotchman  and  a  French  Canadian  being 
with  him.  Later,  Ross  followed  Robert  Stuart's  route 
of  the  previous  winter,  got  to  the  She  Whaps,  and  estab- 
lished a  good  trade.  They  paid  five  leaves  of  tobacco 
for  a  beaver  skin,  and  at  last  when  their  goods  were 
exhausted  and  Ross  had  only  one  yard  of  white  cotton 
remaining,  one  of  the  chiefs  gave  him  twenty  prime 
beaver  skins  for  it. 

This  trading  station  was  at  what  Ross  calls  Come- 
loups — of  course,  the  Kamloops  of  our  day. 

On  his  return  from  this  trip,  Ross  was  formally  ap- 
pointed to  the  post  of  Okanagan,  although,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  he  had  been  in  charge  of  it  since  its  establish- 
ment. In  early  December  he  went  to  Fort  Spokane, 
where  he  met  Mr.  Clark,  who  was  in  charge  of  a  post 
there,  and  an  opposition  post  of  the  Northwest  Com- 


28  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

pany  was  close  by.  The  politics  and  secret  quarrels 
of  the  two  companies,  each  striving  to  get  the  most 
fur,  were  constant — and,  of  course,  were  not  hidden 
from  the  Indians,  who  in  every  way  strove  to  play  on 
the  traders  tricks  similar  to  those  played  on  them. 
Ross  left  Spokane  Fort  a  few  days  later,  and  on  his 
way  home  had  one  of  those  experiences  that  so  often 
came  to  travellers  in  those  old  days  and  that  have  so 
often  proved  fatal. 

"In  the  evening  of  the  13th,  not  far  from  home,  as 
we  were  ascending  a  very  steep  hill,  at  the  top  of  which 
is  a  vast  plain,  I  and  my  man  had  to  walk,  leaving  our 
horses  to  shift  for  themselves,  and  climb  up  as  they 
could;  and  so  steep  and  intricate  were  the  windings 
that  I  had  to  throw  off  my  coat,  which,  together  with 
my  gun,  I  laid  on  one  of  the  pack-horses.  The  moment 
we  reached  the  top,  and  before  we  could  gather  our 
horses  or  look  about  us,  we  were  overtaken  by  a  tre- 
mendous cold  snow  storm;  the  sun  became  instantly 
obscured,  and  the  wind  blew  a  hurricane.  We  were 
taken  by  surprise.  I  immediately  called  out  to  the 
men  to  shift  for  themselves,  and  let  the  horses  do  the 
same.  Just  at  this  moment  I  accidentally  came  in 
contact  with  one  of  the  loaded  horses,  for  such  was 
the  darkness  that  we  could  not  see  three  feet  ahead; 
but,  unfortunately,  it  was  not  the  horse  on  which  I 
had  laid  my  coat  and  gun.  I  instantly  cut  the  tyings, 
threw  off  the  load,  and  mounting  on  the  pack-saddle, 
rode  off  at  full  speed  through  the  deep  snow,  in  the 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  29 

hopes  of  reaching  a  well-known  place  of  shelter  not 
far  off;  but  in  the  darkness  and  confusion  I  missed  the 
place,  and  at  last  got  so  benumbed  with  cold  that  I 
could  ride  no  farther;  and,  besides,  my  horse  was 
almost  exhausted.  In  this  plight  I  dismounted  and 
took  to  walking,  in  order  to  warm  myself.  But  no 
place  of  shelter  was  to  be  found.  Night  came  on;  the 
storm  increased  in  violence;  my  horse  gave  up;  and  I 
myself  was  so  exhausted,  wandering  through  the  deep 
snow,  that  I  could  go  no  further.  Here  I  halted, 
unable  to  decide  what  to  do.  My  situation  appeared 
desperate:  without  my  coat;  without  my  gun;  without 
even  a  fire-steel.  In  such  a  situation  I  must  perish. 
At  last  I  resolved  on  digging  a  hole  in  the  snow;  but 
in  trying  to  do  so,  I  was  several  times  in  danger  of 
being  suffocated  with  the  drift  and  eddy.  In  this  di- 
lemma I  unsaddled  my  horse,  which  stood  motionless 
as  a  statue  in  the  snow.  I  put  the  saddle  under  me, 
and  the  saddle-cloth,  about  the  size  of  a  handkerchief, 
round  my  shoulders,  then  squatted  down  in  the  dismal 
hole,  more  likely  to  prove  my  grave  than  a  shelter. 
On  entering  the  hole  I  said  to  myself,  'Keep  awake  and 
Hve;  sleep  and  die.'  I  had  not  been  long,  however, 
in  this  dismal  burrow  before  the  cold,  notwithstanding 
my  utmost  exertions  to  keep  my  feet  warm,  gained  so 
fast  upon  me  that  I  was  obHged  to  take  off  my  shoes, 
then  pull  my  trousers,  by  little  and  little,  over  my 
feet,  till  at  last  I  had  the  waistband  round  my  toes; 
and  all  would  not  do.     I  was  now  reduced  to  the  last 


30  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

shift,  and  tried  to  keep  my  feet  warm  at  the  risk  of 
freezing  my  body.  At  last  I  had  scarcely  strength  to 
move  a  limb;  the  cold  was  gaining  fast  upon  me;  and 
the  inclination  to  sleep  almost  overcame  me.  In  this 
condition  I  passed  the  whole  night;  nor  did  the  morn- 
ing promise  me  much  relief;  yet  I  thought  it  offered  me 
a  glimpse  of  hope,  and  that  hope  induced  me  to  en- 
deavour to  break  out  of  my  snowy  prison.  I  tried,  but 
in  vain,  to  put  on  my  frozen  shoes;  I  tried  again  and 
again  before  I  could  succeed.  I  then  dug  my  saddle 
out  of  the  snow,  and  after  repeated  efforts,  reached 
the  horse  and  put  the  saddle  on;  but  could  not  myself 
get  into  the  saddle.  Ten  o'clock  next  day  came 
before  there  was  any  abatement  of  the  storm,  and 
when  it  did  clear  up  a  little  I  knew  not  where  I  was; 
still  it  was  cheering  to  see  the  storm  abate.  I  tried 
again  to  get  into  the  saddle;  and  when  I  at  last  suc- 
ceeded, my  half  frozen  horse  refused  to  carry  me,  for 
he  could  scarcely  lift  a  leg.  I  then  alighted  and 
tried  to  walk;  but  the  storm  broke  out  again  with 
redoubled  violence.  I  saw  no  hope  of  saving  myself 
but  to  kill  the  horse,  open  him,  and  get  into  his  body, 
and  I  drew  my  hunting-knife  for  the  purpose;  but 
then  it  occurred  to  me  that  the  body  would  freeze,  and 
that  I  could  not,  in  that  case,  extricate  myself.  I 
therefore  abandoned  the  idea,  laid  my  knife  by,  and 
tried  again  to  walk,  and  again  got  into  the  saddle. 
The  storm  now  abating  a  little,  my  horse  began  to 
move;  and  I  kept  wandering  about  through  the  snow 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  3 1 

till  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  storm 
abated  altogether;  and  the  sun  coming  out,  I  recog- 
nized my  position.  I  was  then  not  two  miles  from 
my  own  house,  where  I  arrived  at  dusk;  and  it  was 
high  time,  for  I  could  not  have  gone  much  farther; 
and  after  all  it  was  my  poor  horse  that  saved  me,  for 
had  I  set  out  on  foot,  I  should  never,  in  my  exhausted 
condition,  have  reached  the  house." 

A  little  later  he  made  another  winter  journey  of 
great  discomfort,  suffering  much  from  cold  and  hun- 
ger. His  return  to  Okanagan  was  down  what  Ross 
calls  the  Sa-mick-a-meigh  River,^  a  region  which 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago  abounded  in  mountain 
sheep  and  was  often  visited  by  Eastern  sportsmen. 

In  his  account  of  the  journey  of  Mr.  Clarke  and  his 
party  to  Spokane,  made  the  August  previous,  Ross 
gives  an  account  of  the  loss  and  recovery  of  Ross  Cox, 
which  that  author  has  himself  told  in  detail  in  his 
book  referred  to  in  a  previous  volume.^  Ross  treats 
the  adventure  somewhat  lightly,  although  he  does  re- 
mark that  when  he  was  at  Spokane  in  the  winter  Cox 
had  hardly  recovered  yet. 

It  was  the  next  spring  that  Clarke,  an  old  North- 
wester, who  might  have  known  better,  committed  the 
grave  indiscretion  of  hanging  an  Indian  who  had  stolen 
a  silver  goblet  but  afterward  returned  it.  It  was  not 
until  the  deed  had  been  done  and  the  angry  Indians 
had  disappeared  to  carry  the  news  in  all  directions  and 

*  Similkameen.  "^  Trails  of  the  Pathfinders,  -p.  'ii'i. 


32  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

to  assemble  surrounding  tribes  to  take  revenge  on  the 
white  men  that  Clarke  appreciated  what  he  had  done. 
Fortunately  the  people  were  all  packed  up  ready  to 
start,  and  they  hastily  loaded  their  canoes  and  went  on 
down  the  stream. 

McKenzie,  in  the  meantime,  had  reached  the  middle 
of  the  Nez  Perces  country  and  was  wintering  there,  but 
he  soon  found  that  he  was  not  in  a  trapping  country. 
The  Nez  Perces  hunted  buffalo  for  food  and  went  to 
war  for  glory.  They  did  not  like  beaver  trapping  and 
made  a  poor  trade.  Now,  McKenzie  while  on  a  visit 
to  Fort  Spokane  learned  from  McTavish,  a  North- 
wester, of  the  war  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  He  hurried  back  to  his  post  there,  put 
his  goods  in  cache,  and  set  out  for  Astoria,  which  he 
reached  in  1 813.  At  Astoria  things  were  not  cheer- 
ful. The  ship  had  not  returned,  and  McDougall  and 
McKenzie  felt  that  they  were  likely  to  be  pushed  out 
of  the  country  by  the  Northwesters,  However,  Mc- 
Kenzie turned  about  and  started  up  the  river.  When 
he  reached  his  post  he  found  that  his  cache  had  been 
raised.  The  older  Indians  admitted  the  robbery,  and 
said  that  it  had  been  done  by  young  men  whom  they 
could  not  control,  McKenzie  was  a  man  of  great 
courage,  and  when  the  chiefs  would  not  assist  him  in 
recovering  his  property  he  determined  to  recover  it 
himself, 

"Accordingly  next  morning,  after  depositing  in  a 
safe  place  the  few  articles  he  had  brought  with  him, 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  33 

he  and  his  httle  band,  armed  cap-a-pie,  set  out  on  foot 
for  the  camp.  On  their  approach,  the  Indians,  sus- 
pecting something,  turned  out  in  groups  here  and  there, 
also  armed.  But  McKenzie,  without  a  moment's  hes- 
itation, or  giving  them  time  to  reflect,  ordered  Mr. 
Seaton,  who  commanded  the  men,  to  surround  the 
first  wigwam  or  lodge  reached  with  charged  bayonets, 
while  he  himself  and  Mr.  Reed  entered  the  lodge,  ran- 
sacked it,  turning  everything  topsy-turvy,  and  with 
their  drawn  daggers  cutting  and  ripping  open  every- 
thing that  might  be  supposed  to  conceal  the  stolen 
property.  In  this  manner  they  went  from  one  lodge 
to  another  till  they  had  searched  five  or  six  with  vari- 
ous success,  when  the  chiefs  demanded  a  parlej^,  and 
gave  McKenzie  to  understand  that  if  he  desisted  they 
would  do  the  business  themselves,  and  more  effectually. 
McKenzie,  after  some  feigned  reluctance,  at  last  agreed 
to  the  chiefs'  proposition.  They  then  asked  him  to 
withdraw;  but  this  he  peremptorily  refused,  knowing 
from  experience  that  they  were  least  exposed  in  the 
camp;  for  Indians  are  always  averse  to  hostilities  tak- 
ing place  in  their  camp,  in  the  midst  of  their  women 
and  children.  Had  the  Indians  foreseen  or  been  aware 
of  the  intention  of  the  whites,  they  would  never  have 
allowed  them  within  their  camp.  But  they  were  taken 
by  surprise,  and  that  circumstance  saved  the  whites. 
However,  as  soon  as  the  chiefs  undertook  the  business, 
McKenzie  and  his  men  stood  still  and  looked  on.  The 
chiefs  went  from  house  to  house,  and  after  about  three 


34  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

hours  time  they  returned,  bringing  with  them  a  large 
portion  of  the  property,  and  deHvered  it  to  McKenzie, 
when  he  and  his  men  left  the  camp  and  returned  home, 
bearing  off  in  triumph  the  fruits  of  their  valour;  and 
well  pleased  with  their  hairbreadth  adventure;  an  ad- 
venture not  to  be  repeated.  And  under  all  circum- 
stances, it  was  at  the  time  considered  the  boldest  step 
ever  taken  by  the  whites  on  Columbian  ground." 

However,  the  Indians  determined  to  get  even  with 
McKenzie,  and  they  did  this  by  refusing  to  sell  the 
horses  which  were  absolutely  necessary  to  the  fur 
traders,  since  horses  were  the  only  food  available,  for 
they  were  not  in  a  position  to  go  out  and  run  buffalo. 
McKenzie  later  got  the  best  of  them  by  this  plan: 
When  the  whites  had  nothing  to  eat,  the  articles  usu- 
ally paid  for  a  horse  were  tied  up  in  a  bundle;  this  done, 
McKenzie,  with  ten  or  twelve  of  his  men,  would  sally 
forth  with  their  rifles  to  the  grazing  ground  of  the 
horses,  shoot  the  fattest  they  could  find,  and  carry  off 
the  flesh  to  their  camp,  leaving  the  price  stuck  up  on 
a  pole  alongside  the  head  of  the  dead  horse. 

"This  manoeuvre  succeeded  several  times,  and  an- 
noyed the  Indians  very  much;  some  of  them  lost  their 
best  horses  by  it.  Then  it  was  that  they  combined  to 
attack  the  whites  in  their  camp.  This  news  was  brought 
McKenzie  by  one  of  his  hired  spies,  and  was  confirmed 
by  the  fact  of  an  Indian  offering  to  sell  a  horse  for 
powder  and  ball  only.  From  various  other  suspicious 
circumstances  there  remained  but  little  doubt  in  the 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  35 

minds  of  the  whites  but  that  there  was  some  dark  de- 
sign in  agitation.  In  this  critical  conjuncture,  Mc- 
Kenzie  again  eluded  their  grasp  by  ensconcing  himself 
and  his  party  in  an  island  in  the  middle  of  the  river. 
There  they  remained,  in  a  manner  blockaded  by  the 
Indians;  but  not  so  closely  watched  but  that  they  ap- 
peared every  now  and  then  with  their  long  rifles  among 
the  Shahaptian  horses;  so  that  the  Indians  grew  tired 
of  their  predatory  excursions,  and  therefore  sent  a  mes- 
senger to  McKenzie.  A  parley  ensued  between  the 
main  land  and  the  island;  the  result  of  which  was,  that 
the  Indians  agreed  to  sell  horses  to  the  whites  at  the 
usual  price — the  whites,  on  their  part,  to  give  up  their 
marauding  practices." 

The  trade  in  horses  now  went  on  briskly,  although 
McKenzie  regarded  the  Indians  with  much  suspicion. 
He  procured  food  and  bought  eighty  horses,  which  he 
sent  off  to  Spokane.  It  was  about  this  time  that  news 
came  to  them  of  Mr.  Clark's  ill-advised  punishment 
of  the  Indians.  There  was  but  one  opinion  among  the 
traders,  and  they  pursued  the  only  possible  course: 
took  to  their  canoes,  and  went  down  the  river  to  Astoria. 

The  journeyings  of  the  party  which  had  started  over- 
land to  St.  Louis  the  summer  before  were  difficult 
enough.  They  starved  and  travelled,  and  travelled 
and  starved;  crossed  the  mountains,  and  wintered  on 
their  eastern  flanks,  and  finally  reached  St.  Louis 
April  30. 

Mr.  Hunt,  after  trading  along  the  coast  of  Russian 


36  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

America,  went  to  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  then  to 
Canton.  On  his  return  Mr.  Hunt  waited  for  a  time 
at  the  Sandwich  Islands,  hoping  that  a  ship  from  New 
York  might  come  to  the  relief  of  Astoria.  He  waited 
in  vain,  and  finally  chartering  the  ship  "Albatross"  he 
reached  Astoria  in  August. 

The  war  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  had  led  the  Northwest  Fur  Company  to  believe 
that  before  long  they  could  get  possession  of  Astoria, 
and  thus  hold  the  whole  trade  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
except  that  of  the  Russians.  The  Northwesters  Mc- 
Tavish  and  Stuart  were  on  their  way  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  to  meet  the  ship  "Isaac  Tod,"  which 
was  daily  expected,  and  the  Astorians  had  no  means 
of  defence.  They  could  fight  off  the  Northwesters,  of 
course,  but  if  a  ship  with  guns  came  they  would  be 
helpless.  McDougall  seemed  to  have  been  quite  will- 
ing to  give  up  the  post  and  to  sell  the  furs  to  the 
Northwesters,  and  before  long  this  took  place.  Mc- 
Dougall has  generally  been  charged  with  secretly  agree- 
ing to  swindle  Mr.  Astor  by  fixing  absurdly  low  prices 
on  the  furs  and  goods.  At  all  events,  all  of  the  goods 
on  hand,  wherever  stationed,  were  dehvered  to  the 
Northwest  Company  at  ten  per  cent  on  cost  and 
charges,  while  the  furs  were  valued  at  so  much  per 
skin.  Ross  declared  that  the  transaction  was  con- 
sidered fair  and  equitable  on  both  sides,  but  other  men 
who  were  there  speak  of  it  in  quite  a  different  way. 
The  Indians,  who  for  the  past  yea.r  or  two  had  declared 


An  Early  Fur  Trader  37 

themselves  the  firm  friends  of  the  fur  traders,  still 
wished  to  defend  these  friends  from  the  attacks  of  their 
enemies.  Old  Come  Comly  even  professed  to  be  anx- 
ious to  fight  for  them,  but  when  the  sloop-of-war 
"Raccoon"  came  into  Baker's  Bay  the  Indian  chief 
wholly  changed  his  attitude,  and  declared  that  he  was 
glad  that  he  had  lived  long  enough  to  see  a  great 
ship  of  his  brother  King  George  enter  the  river.  He 
received  a  drink  of  wine,  a  flag,  coat,  hat,  and  sword, 
and  became  wholly  British. 

Captain  Black,  of  the  "Raccoon,"  and  his  ship's 
company  had  hoped  to  capture  Astoria  with  all  its 
furs — a  rich  prize — and  he  was  much  disappointed 
when  he  found  that  all  these  things  had  been  sold  to 
the  Northwest  Company  by  amicable  agreement. 

In  the  spring  of  1814  Mr.  Hunt,  accompanied  by 
several  members  of  the  Astoria  party,  took  their 
final  departure  from  Fort  George.  A  number  of  those 
who  had  been  Astorians,  when  freed  from  their  con- 
tracts or  agreements  by  Mr.  Hunt,  again  took  service 
with  the  Northwest  Company,  most  of  them  receiv- 
ing such  work  as  they  were  quahfied  to  perform.  Ross 
was  put  in  charge  of  the  post  at  Okanagan,  as  he  had 
been  under  the  Pacific  Fur  Company.  Stationed  here 
now  for  some  time,  he  gives  an  excellent  picture  of  the 
life,  and  especially  good  accounts  of  the  manners, 
ways,  and  customs  of  the  Indians,  and,  with  an  inter- 
esting Chinook  vocabulary  and  a  table  of  weather  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  closes  the  volume. 


38  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

As  an  account  of  the  Astor  project  to  control  the 
fur  trade  of  the  Pacific  coast  and  of  the  difficulties  of 
establishing  a  trading  post  among  the  Indians  of  the 
Columbia  River,  the  book  is  of  extreme  interest. 


FUR  HUNTERS  OF  THE  FAR  WEST 


FUR  HUNTERS  OF  THE  FAR  WEST 

I 

WITH  THE  NORTHWEST  FUR  COMPANY 

AFTER  the  downfall  of  the  Pacific  Fur  Com- 
pany, the  occupation  of  Astoria  by  the  North- 
westers, and  the  change  of  its  name  to  Fort 
George,  Ross  took  service  with  the  Northwest  Com- 
pany. It  is  life  as  a  fur  trader  with  the  Northwest 
Company  that  he  describes  in  his  book  The  Fur  Hunt- 
ers of  the  Far  West.  In  point  of  time,  these  volumes 
precede  most  of  the  books  on  the  far  western  fur 
trade,  and  they  give  faithful  and  interesting  accounts 
of  the  conditions  met  with  at  the  time.  Ross's  books, 
in  fact,  are  foundation  stones  for  any  history  of  the 
settlement  of  the  Northwest.  Although  the  books 
were  not  written  until  long  after  the  period  of  which 
they  treat — for  the  preface  of  this  work  is  dated  June  i, 
1854,  while  the  book  was  pubHshed  the  next  year — 
Ross  must  have  kept  full  diaries  of  his  goings  and  com- 
ings, for  in  most  of  his  dates  he  is  exact,  and  his 
narrative  is  full  of  details  that  would  almost  cer- 
tainly have  slipped  from  an  unaided  memory. 

In  his  new  service  Ross  discovered  that  matters  were 

41 


42  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

now  In  charge  of  men  who  knew  very  Httle  about  the 
Indians  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and  who  hghtly  regarded 
those  persons  who  had  been  in  the  service  of  Mr. 
Astor,  whom  they  called  Yankees.  The  new-comers 
had  much  to  learn. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Northwest  Company 
was  to  despatch  an  expedition  of  twenty  men,  in  charge 
of  Messrs.  Keith  and  Alexander  Stuart,  to  report  to 
Fort  William,  on  Lake  Superior,  the  news  of  the  acqui- 
sition of  Astoria  by  the  Northwest  Company.  On 
reaching  the  Cascades  of  the  Columbia  they  were 
attacked  by  a  large  number  of  Indians,  and  Mr.  Stuart 
was  wounded.  Two  Indians  were  killed,  and  the  expe- 
dition returned  to  Fort  George.  The  attack  caused 
great  indignation  there,  and  an  extraordinary  expedi- 
tion was  fitted  out  to  punish  the  Indians.  Eighty-five 
picked  men  and  two  Chinook  interpreters  constituted 
the  force;  and  besides  the  ordinary  arms  carried  in  the 
West  they  had  "two  great  guns,  six  swivels,  cutlasses, 
hand  grenades,  and  hand  knives." 

As  the  expedition  passed  along  up  the  river,  it  struck 
terror  to  the  hearts  of  the  Indians,  while  it  is  said  that 
"the  two  Chinook  interpreters  could  neither  sleep  nor 
eat,  so  grieved  were  they  at  the  thoughts  of  the 
bloody  scenes  that  were  to  be  enacted." 

The  people  who  were  to  be  punished,  however — 
the  Cath-le-yach-e-yach,  a  Chlnookan  tribe  hving  be- 
low the  Cascades — were  not  all  frightened,  and  when 
they  were  required  to  deliver  up  the  property  taken 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  43 

from  Keith  and  Stuart,  they  declared  themselves  ready 
to  do  so,  but  not  until  after  the  whites  had  delivered 
to  them  those  who  had  killed  two  of  their  people. 
They  sent  off  their  women  and  children  into  the  forest 
and  prepared  to  fight.  There  were  multitudinous 
parleys  lasting  for  three  or  four  days,  at  the  end  of 
which  time  the  whites,  regarding  discretion  as  the 
better  part  of  valor,  "without  recovering  the  prop- 
erty, firing  a  gun,  or  securing  a  single  prisoner,  sounded 
a  retreat  and  returned  home  on  the  ninth  day,  having 
made  matters  ten  times  worse  than  they  were  before." 

The  expedition  was  much  derided  by  the  Indians, 
and  the  white  people  who  took  part  in  it  were  extremely 
mortified  about  it.  The  situation  was  really  one  of 
war,  and  when  a  short  time  afterward  the  Northwest 
brigade  departed  for  the  interior,  the  Indians  at  the 
Cascades  did  not  come  near  to  the  camp  nor  in  any 
degree  interrupt  their  progress. 

Consulted  by  McDonald,  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
Columbia  trade,  Ross  had  urged  on  him  the  impor- 
tance of  taking  the  "usual  precautions"  in  travelling 
up  the  river.  Nevertheless,  no  guard  was  set  at  night, 
and  an  alarm  taking  place,  people  jumped  up  and 
began  to  fire  their  guns  at  random  and  one  of  the  men 
was  shot  dead.  There  seems  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  there  were  actually  any  Indians  in  the  camp. 

At  Fort  Okanagan  the  expedition  passed  on,  leaving 
Ross  behind  in  charge  of  the  post.  He  was  now  in  a 
prairie  country  where  horses  were  absolutely  essential 


44  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

to  travel,  and  no  horses  were  to  be  had  nearer  than 
Eyakema  valley,  two  hundred  miles  away,  where  the 
horse  Indians,  Cayuses,  Nez  Perces,  and  other  warlike 
tribes  encamped  each  spring,  to  collect  the  roots  of 
the  camas.  Here  horses  were  plenty,  but,  as  it  was 
a  great  camp  occupied  by  many  different  tribes,  to 
visit  it  was  to  incur  some  danger.  However,  Ross 
took  a  few  trade  goods  and  set  out  with  three  men, 
young  McKay  and  two  French  Canadians,  these  last 
taking  with  them  their  Indian  wives,  to  assist  in  the 
care  of  the  horses. 

It  was  an  anxious  time,  and  the  perplexities  of  the 
journey  were  not  lessened  when,  on  the  fourth  night 
after  leaving  Okanagan,  the  chief  of  the  Pisscows 
tribe,  who  had  learned  where  Ross  was  going,  sent  two 
men  to  urge  him  to  turn  back,  declaring  that  if  they 
did  not  do  so  they  were  all  dead  men.  However,  Ross 
determined  to  go  on;  as  he  puts  it,  "I  had  risked  my 
life  there  for  the  Americans,  I  could  now  do  no  less 
for  the  North-West  Company;  so  with  deep  regret  the 
friendly  couriers  left  us  and  returned,  and  with  no  less 
reluctance  we  proceeded." 

On  the  sixth  day  after  leaving  the  fort  they  reached 
the  valley,  where  they  found  a  great  camp,  of  which 
they  could  see  the  beginning,  but  not  the  end.  It 
must  have  contained  not  less  than  3,000  men,  exclusive 
of  women  and  children,  and  three  times  that  number  of 
horses.  Everywhere  was  seen  the  active  life  of  these 
primitive  people.     Councils  were  being  held,  women 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  45 

were  gathering  roots,  men  were  hunting.  Horse  rac- 
ing, games,  singing,  dancing,  drumming,  yelling,  and 
a  thousand  other  things  were  going  on.  The  noise  and 
confusion  are  hardly  to  be  described;  but  the  interest 
and  the  beauty  of  the  scene  could  not  have  been  ap- 
preciated by  these  men,  who  were  carrying  their  lives 
in  their  hands  and  marching  into  danger. 

"Our  reception  was  cool,  the  chiefs  were  hostile  and 
sullen,  they  saluted  us  in  no  very  flattering  accents. 
'These  are  the  men,'  said  they,  'who  kill  our  relations, 
the  people  who  have  caused  us  to  mourn.'  And  here, 
for  the  first  time,  I  regretted  we  had  not  taken  advice 
in  time,  and  returned  with  the  couriers,  for  the  general 
aspect  of  things  was  against  us.  It  was  evident  we 
stood  on  slippery  ground;  we  felt  our  weakness.  In 
all  sudden  and  unexpected  rencontres  with  hostile  In- 
dians, the  first  impulse  is  generally  a  tremor  or  sensa- 
tion of  fear,  but  that  soon  wears  off;  it  was  so  with 
myself  at  this  moment,  for  after  a  short  interval  I 
nerved  myself  to  encounter  the  worst. 

"The  moment  we  dismounted,  we  were  surrounded, 
and  the  savages,  giving  two  or  three  war-whoops  and 
yells,  drove  the  animals  we  had  ridden  out  of  our  sight; 
this  of  itself  was  a  hostile  movement.  We  had  to 
judge  from  appearances,  and  be  guided  by  circum- 
stances. My  first  care  was  to  try  and  direct  their 
attention  to  something  new,  and  to  get  rid  of  the 
temptation  there  was  to  dispose  of  my  goods;  so  with- 
out a  moment's  delay,  I  commenced  a  trade  in  horses; 


46  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

but  every  horse  I  bought  during  that  and  the  follow- 
ing day,  as  well  as  those  we  had  brought  with  us,  were 
instantly  driven  out  of  sight,  in  the  midst  of  yelling 
and  jeering:  nevertheless,  I  continued  to  trade  while 
an  article  remained,  putting  the  best  face  on  things  I 
could,  and  taking  no  notice  of  their  conduct,  as  no 
insult  or  violence  had  as  yet  been  offered  to  ourselves 
personally.  Two  days  and  nights  had  now  elapsed 
since  our  arrival,  without  food  or  sleep;  the  Indians 
refused  us  the  former,  our  own  anxiety  deprived  us  of 
the  latter. 

"During  the  third  day  I  discovered  that  the  two 
women  were  to  have  been  either  killed  or  taken  from  us 
and  made  slaves.  So  surrounded  were  we  for  miles 
on  every  side,  that  we  could  not  stir  unobserved;  yet 
we  had  to  devise  some  means  for  their  escape,  and  to 
get  them  clear  of  the  camp  was  a  task  of  no  ordinary 
difficulty  and  danger.  In  this  critical  conjuncture, 
however,  something  had  to  be  done,  and  that  without 
delay.  One  of  them  had  a  child  at  the  breast,  v/hich 
increased  the  difficulty.  To  attempt  sending  them 
back  by  the  road  they  came,  would  have  been  sacrific- 
ing them.  To  attempt  an  unknown  path  through  the 
rugged  mountains,  however  doubtful  the  issue,  appeared 
the  only  prospect  that  held  out  a  glimpse  of  hope; 
therefore,  to  this  mode  of  escape  I  directed  their  atten- 
tion. As  soon  as  it  was  dark,  they  set  out  on  their  for- 
lorn adventure  without  food,  guide,  or  protection,  to 
make  their  way  home,  under  a  kind  Providence! 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  47 

"'You  are  to  proceed,'  said  I  to  them,  *due  north, 
cross  the  mountains,  and  keep  in  that  direction  till 
you  fall  on  the  Pisscows  River;  take  the  first  canoe  you 
find,  and  proceed  with  all  diligence  down  to  the  mouth 
of  it  and  there  await  our  arrival.  But  if  we  are  not 
there  on  the  fourth  day, you  may  proceed  to  Oakanagan, 
and  tell  your  story/  With  these  instructions  we  parted ; 
and  with  but  little  hopes  of  our  ever  meeting  again. 
I  had  no  sooner  set  about  getting  the  women  off,  than 
the  husbands  expressed  a  wish  to  accompany  them; 
the  desire  was  natural,  yet  I  had  to  oppose  it.  This 
state  of  things  distracted  my  attention:  my  eyes  had 
now  to  be  on  my  own  people  as  well  as  on  the  Indians, 
as  I  was  apprehensive  they  would  desert.  'There  is 
no  hope  for  the  women  by  going  alone,'  said  the  hus- 
bands, 'no  hope  for  us  by  remaining  here:  we  might 
as  well  be  killed  in  the  attempt  to  escape,  as  remain 
to  be  killed  here.'  'No,'  said  I,  'by  remaining  here 
we  do  our  duty;  by  going  we  should  be  deserting  our 
duty.'  To  this  remonstrance  they  made  no  reply. 
The  Indians  soon  perceived  that  they  had  been  out- 
witted. They  turned  over  our  baggage,  and  searched 
in  every  hole  and  corner.  Disappointment  creates  ill 
humor:  it  was  so  with  the  Indians.  They  took  the 
men's  guns  out  of  their  hands,  fired  them  off  at  their 
feet,  and  then,  with  savage  laughter,  laid  them  down 
again;  took  their  hats  off  their  heads,  and  after  strut- 
ting about  with  these  for  some  time,  jeeringly  gave 
them  back  to ^ their  owners:  all  this  time,  they  never 


48  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

interfered  with  me,  but  I  fek  that  every  insult  offered 
to  my  men  was  an  indirect  insult  offered  to  myself. 

"The  day  after  the  women  went  off,  I  ordered  one 
of  the  men  to  trj^  and  cook  something  for  us;  for  hitherto 
we  had  eaten  nothing  since  our  arrival,  except  a  few 
raw  roots  which  we  managed  to  get  unobserved.  But 
the  kettle  was  no  sooner  on  the  fire  than  five  or  six 
spears  bore  off,  in  savage  triumph,  the  contents:  they 
even  emptied  out  the  water,  and  threw  the  kettle  on 
one  side;  and  this  was  no  sooner  done  than  thirty  or 
forty  ill-favored  wretches  fired  a  volley  in  the  embers 
before  us,  which  caused  a  cloud  of  smoke  and  ashes 
to  ascend,  darkening  the  air  around  us:  a  strong  hint 
not  to  put  the  kettle  any  more  on  the  fire,  and  we 
took  it. 

"At  this  time  the  man  who  had  put  the  kettle  on  the 
fire  took  the  knife  with  which  he  had  cut  the  venison 
to  lay  it  by,  when  one  of  the  Indians,  called  Eyacktana, 
a  bold  and  turbulent  chief,  snatched  it  out  of  his  hand; 
the  man,  in  an  angry  tone,  demanded  his  knife,  saying 
to  me,  'I'll  have  my  knife  from  the  villain,  life  or 
death.'  'No,'  said  I.  The  chief,  seeing  the  man  angry, 
threw  down  his  robe,  and  grasping  the  knife  in  his  fist, 
with  the  point  downwards,  raised  his  arm,  making  a 
motion  in  advance  as  if  he  intended  using  it.  The 
crisis  had  now  arrived!  At  this  moment  there  was  a 
dead  silence.  The  Indians  were  flocking  in  from  all 
quarters:  a  dense  crowd  surrounded  us.  Not  a  mo- 
ment was  to  be  lost;  delay  would  be  fatal,  and  nothing 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  49 

now  seemed  to  remain  for  us  but  to  sell  our  lives  as 
dearly  as  possible.  With  this  impression,  grasping  a 
pistol,  I  advanced  a  step  towards  the  villain  who  held 
the  knife,  with  the  full  determination  of  putting  an 
end  to  his  career  before  any  of  us  should  fall;  but  while 
in  the  act  of  lifting  my  foot  and  moving  my  arm,  a 
second  idea  floated  across  my  mind,  admonishing  me 
to  soothe,  and  not  provoke,  the  Indians,  that  Provi- 
dence might  yet  make  a  way  for  us  to  escape:  this 
thought  saved  the  Indian's  life,  and  ours  too.  Instead 
of  drawing  the  pistol,  as  I  intended,  I  took  a  knife  from 
my  belt,  such  as  travellers  generally  use  in  this  country, 
and  presented  it  to  him,  saying,  'Here,  my  friend,  is  a 
chief's  knife,  I  give  it  to  you;  that  is  not  a  chief's  knife, 
give  it  back  to  the  man.'  Fortunately,  he  took  mine 
in  his  hand;  but,  still  sullen  and  savage,  he  said  noth- 
ing. The  moment  was  a  critical  one;  our  fate  hung  as 
by  a  thread:  I  shall  never  forget  it!  All  the  bystanders 
had  their  eyes  now  fixed  on  the  chief,  thoughtful  and 
silent  as  he  stood;  we  also  stood  motionless,  not  know- 
ing what  a  moment  might  bring  forth.  At  last  the 
savage  handed  the  man  his  knife,  and  turning  mine 
round  and  round  for  some  time  in  his  hand,  turned  to 
his  people,  holding  up  the  knife  in  his  hand,  exclaimed, 
'She-augh  Me-yokat  Waltz' — Look,  my  friends,  at  the 
chief's  knife:  these  words  he  repeated  over  and  over 
again.  He  was  delighted.  The  Indians  flocked  round 
him:  all  admired  the  toy,  and  in  the  excess  of  his  joy 
he  harangued  the  multitude  in  our  favour.     Fickle,  in- 


50  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

deed,  are  savages!  They  were  now  no  longer  enemies, 
but  friends!  Several  others,  following  Eyacktana's  ex- 
ample, harangued  in  turn,  all  in  favour  of  the  whites. 
This  done,  the  great  men  squatted  themselves  down, 
the  pipe  of  peace  was  called  for,  and  while  it  was  going 
round  and  round  the  smoking  circle,  I  gave  each  of  the 
six  principal  chiefs  a  small  paper-cased  looking-glass 
and  a  little  vermilion,  as  a  present;  and  in  return,  they 
presented  me  with  two  horses  and  twelve  beavers, 
while  the  women  soon  brought  us  a  variety  of  eatables. 

''This  sudden  change  regulated  my  movements. 
Indeed,  I  might  say  the  battle  was  won,  I  now  made 
a  speech  to  them  in  turn,  and,  as  many  of  them  under- 
stood the  language  I  spoke,  I  asked  them  what  I  should 
say  to  the  great  white  chief  when  I  got  home,  when  he 
asks  me  where  are  all  the  horses  I  bought  from  you. 
What  shall  I  say  to  him?  At  this  question  it  was  easy 
to  see  that  their  pride  was  touched.  'Tell  him,'  said 
Eyacktana,  'that  we  have  but  one  mouth,  and  one 
word;  all  the  horses  you  have  bought  from  us  are  3^ours, 
they  shall  be  delivered  up.'  This  was  just  what  I 
wanted.  After  a  little  counselling  among  themselves, 
Eyacktana  was  the  first  to  speak,  and  he  undertook  to 
see  them  collected. 

"By  this  time  it  was  sun-down.  The  chief  then 
mounted  his  horse,  and  desired  me  to  mount  mine  and 
accompany  him,  teUing  one  of  his  sons  to  take  my  men 
and  property  under  his  charge  till  our  return.  Being 
acquainted  with  Indian  habits,  I  knew  there  would  be 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  51 

repeated  calls  upon  my  purse,  so  I  put  some  trinkets 
into  my  pocket,  and  we  started  on  our  nocturnal  ad- 
venture; which  I  considered  hazardous  but  not  hopeless. 

**Such  a  night  we  had!  The  chief  harangued,  trav- 
elled and  harangued,  the  whole  night,  the  people  re- 
plied. We  visited  every  street,  alley,  hole  and  corner 
of  the  camp,  which  we  traversed  lengthwise,  crossway, 
east,  west,  south,  and  north,  going  from  group  to 
group,  and  the  call  was  *DeHver  up  the  horses.'  Here 
was  gambhng,  there  scalp-dancing;  laughter  in  one 
place,  mourning  in  another.  Crowds  were  passing  to 
and  fro,  whooping,  yelling,  dancing,  drumming,  sing- 
ing. Men,  women,  and  children  were  huddled  to- 
gether; flags  flying,  horses  neighing,  dogs  howHng, 
chained  bears,  tied  wolves,  grunting  and  growling,  all 
pell-mell  among  the  tents;  and,  to  complete  the  con- 
fusion, the  night  was  dark.  At  the  end  of  each  ha- 
rangue the  chief  would  approach  me,  and  whisper  in 
my  ear,  *She-augh  tamtay  enim' — I  have  spoken  well 
in  your  favour — a  hint  for  me  to  reward  his  zeal  by 
giving  him  something.  This  was  repeated  constantly, 
and  I  gave  him  each  time  a  string  of  beads,  or  two  but- 
tons, or  two  rings.  I  often  thought  he  repeated  his 
harangues  more  frequently  than  necessary;  but  it  an- 
swered his  purpose,  and  I  had  no  choice  but  to  obey 
and  pay. 

'*At  daylight  we  got  back;  my  people  and  property 
were  safe;  and  in  two  hours  after  my  eighty-five  horses 
were  delivered  up,  and  in  our  possession.     I  was  now 


52  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

convinced  of  the  chief's  influence,  and  had  got  so  well 
into  his  good  graces  with  my  beads,  buttons,  and  rings, 
that  I  hoped  we  were  out  of  all  our  troubles.  Our 
business  being  done,  I  ordered  my  men  to  tie  up  and 
prepare  for  home,  which  was  glad  tidings  to  them. 
With  all  this  favourable  change,  we  were  much  em- 
barrassed and  annoyed  in  our  preparations  to  start. 
The  savages  interrupted  us  every  moment.  They 
jeered  the  men,  frightened  the  horses,  and  kept  han- 
dling, snapping,  and  firing  off  our  guns;  asking  for  this, 
that,  and  the  other  thing.  The  men's  hats,  pipes,  belts, 
and  knives  were  constantly  in  their  hands.  They 
wished  to  see  everything,  and  everything  they  saw  they 
wished  to  get,  even  to  the  buttons  on  their  clothes. 
Their  teasing  curiosity  had  no  bounds;  and  every  delay 
increased  our  difficulties.  Our  patience  was  put  to  the 
test  a  thousand  times;  but  at  last  we  got  ready,  and  my 
men  started.  To  amuse  the  Indians,  however,  till 
they  could  get  fairly  off,  I  invited  the  chiefs  to  a  parley, 
which  I  put  a  stop  to  as  soon  as  I  thought  the  men 
and  horses  had  got  clear  of  the  camp.  I  then  pre- 
pared to  follow  them,  when  a  new  difficulty  arose.  In 
the  hurry  and  bustle  of  starting,  my  people  had  left  a 
restive,  awkward  brute  of  a  horse  for  me,  wild  as  a 
deer,  and  as  full  of  latent  tricks  as  he  was  wild.  I 
mounted  and  dismounted  at  least  a  dozen  times;  in 
vain  I  tried  to  make  him  advance.  He  reared,  jumped 
and  plunged;  but  refused  to  walk,  trot,  or  gallop. 
Every  trial  to  make  him  go  was  a  failure.     A  young  con- 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  53 

ceited  fop  of  an  Indian,  thinking  he  could  make  more 
of  him  than  I  could,  jumped  on  his  back;  the  horse 
reared  and  plunged  as  before,  when,  instead  of  slacken- 
ing the  bridle  as  he  reared,  he  reined  it  tighter  and 
tighter,  till  the  horse  fell  right  over  on  his  back,  and 
almost  killed  the  fellow.  Here  Eyacktana,  with  a 
frown,  called  out,  'Kap-sheesh  she-eam' — the  bad 
horse — and  gave  me  another;  and  for  the  generous 
act  I  gave  him  my  belt,  the  only  article  I  had  to  spare. 
But  although  the  difficulties  I  had  with  the  horse  were 
galling  enough  to  me,  they  proved  a  source  of  great 
amusement  to  the  Indians,  who  enjoyed  it  with  roars 
of  laughter." 

When  Ross  got  out  of  the  camp  he  rode  hard  and 
took  a  short  cut  in  the  effort  to  overtake  his  people, 
but  could  not  find  them.  Presently,  however,  from  the 
top  of  a  ridge,  he  saw  three  horsemen  coming  toward 
him  at  full  tilt.  He  made  preparation  for  defence,  and 
hiding  behind  a  rock  awaited  the  onslaught,  but  before 
they  got  close  to  him  he  discovered  that  these  were 
the  friendly  Pisscows,  who  before  had  warned  him  to 
turn  back,  and  with  them  he  went  on.  At  last  they 
saw  Ross's  people,  who  were  driving  their  horses  as 
fast  as  they  could,  but  when  they  saw  Ross  and  his 
companions  behind  them  they  thought  them  ene- 
mies, and  stopped  to  fight.  All  were  glad  enough  to 
get  together,  and  at  last,  after  various  adventures,  they 
reached  the  fort  at  Okanagan. 


54  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

II 

WORK  OF  A  FUR  TRADER 

A  LITTLE  later  Ross  went  north  to  his  own  post  at  the 
She-Whaps,  where  he  made  a  good  trade.  From  here 
he  decided  to  go  west  to  the  Pacific  coast  on  foot,  be- 
lieving that  the  distance  was  not  more  than  two  hun- 
dred miles,  but  before  he  reached  the  coast  a  destructive 
hurricane  passed  so  close  to  his  party  that  his  guide, 
altogether  discouraged  by  fatigue  and  failure,  deserted 
during  the  night,  and  Ross  was  obHged  to  return. 

One  winter,  much  alarm  was  caused  among  the  In- 
dians by  the  depredations  of  strange  wolves,  reported 
to  be  hundreds  in  number,  and  as  big  as  buffalo,  which 
were  coming  into  the  country,  and  on  their  march  were 
killing  all  the  horses.  The  Indians  declared  that  all 
the  horses  would  be  killed,  for  men  could  not  go  near 
these  wolves,  nor  would  arrows  or  balls  kill  them. 
Shortly  after  the  head  chief  of  the  Okanagan  Indians 
had  told  this  story  to  Ross,  wolves  killed  five  of  the 
traders'  horses.  Ross  took  up  those  left  alive,  and  then 
put  out  a  dozen  traps  about  the  carcass  of  one  that 
had  been  killed.  The  next  morning  four  of  the  traps 
were  sprung.  **One  of  them  held  a  large  white  wolf 
by  the  fore  leg,  a  foot  equally  large  was  gnawed  off 
and  left  in  another,  the  third  held  a  fox,  and  the  fourth 
trap  had  disappeared  altogether."  Unable  to  get 
away,  the  captured  wolf  was  quite  ready  to  fight.     It 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  55 

had  gnawed  the  trap  until  its  teeth  were  broken  and  its 
head  was  covered  with  blood.  When  killed  it  was  found 
to  weigh  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  pounds,  an 
enormous  animal.  The  one  that  had  carried  off  the 
trap  was  at  last  discovered  making  the  best  of  its  way 
over  the  country,  and  pursuit  resulted  in  its  capture. 
The  animal  had  dragged  a  trap  and  chain  weighing 
eight  and  one-half  pounds  a  distance  of  twenty-five 
miles,  without  appearing  at  all  fatigued.  Ross  wanted 
the  skin,  but  had  left  his  knife  behind  him.  However, 
it  was  not  for  nothing  that  he  had  been  for  years  asso- 
ciated with  Indians,  and  he  took  the  flint  out  of  his 
gun,  skinned  the  animal,  and  went  home  with  skin  and 
trap. 

The  killing  of  these  two  wolves  and  the  crippling 
of  the  third  put  an  end  to  the  destruction,  and  not  an- 
other horse  was  killed  in  that  part  of  the  country  during 
the  season. 

Ross  comments  interestingly  on  the  methods  used 
by  wolves  in  decoying  horses. 

"If  there  is  no  snow,  or  but  little,  on  the  ground,  two 
wolves  approach  in  the  most  playful  and  caressing 
manner,  lying,  rolling,  and  frisking  about,  until  the 
too  credulous  and  unsuspecting  victim  is  completely 
put  off  his  guard  by  curiosity  and  familiarity.  During 
this  time  the  gang,  squatted  on  their  hind-quarters, 
look  on  at  a  distance.  After  some  time  spent  in  this 
way,  the  two  assailants  separate,  when  one  approaches 
the  horse's  head,  the  other  his  tail,  with  a  slyness  and 


56  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

cunning  peculiar  to  themselves.  At  this  stage  of  the 
attack,  their  frolicsome  approaches  become  very  in- 
teresting— it  is  in  right  good  earnest;  the  former  is  a 
mere  decoy,  the  latter  is  the  real  assailant,  and  keeps 
his  eyes  steadily  fixed  on  the  ham-strings  or  flank  of 
the  horse.  The  critical  moment  is  then  watched,  and 
the  attack  is  simultaneous;  both  wolves  spring  at  their 
victim  the  same  instant,  one  to  the  throat,  the  other 
to  the  flank,  and  if  successful,  which  they  generally 
are,  the  hind  one  never  lets  go  his  hold  till  the  horse 
is  completely  disabled.  Instead  of  springing  forward 
or  kicking  to  disengage  himself,  the  horse  turns  round 
and  round  without  attempting  a  defence.  The  wolf 
before,  then  springs  behind,  to  assist  the  other.  The 
sinews  are  cut,  and  in  half  the  time  I  have  been  describ- 
ing it,  the  horse  is  on  his  side;  his  struggles  are  fruit- 
less: the  victory  is  won.  At  this  signal,  the  lookers-on 
close  in  at  a  gallop,  but  the  small  fry  of  followers  keep 
at  a  respectful  distance,  until  their  superiors  are  gorged, 
then  they  take  their  turn  unmolested.  The  wolves, 
however,  do  not  always  kill  to  eat;  like  wasteful  hunt- 
ers, they  often  kill  for  the  pleasure  of  killing,  and  leave 
the  carcases  untouched.  The  helplessness  of  the  horse 
when  attacked  by  wolves  is  not  more  singular  than  its 
timidity  and  want  of  action  when  in  danger  by  fire. 
When  assailed  by  fire,  in  the  plains  or  elsewhere,  their 
strength,  swiftness,  and  sagacity,  are  of  no  avail;  they 
never  attempt  to  fly,  but  become  bewildered  in  the 
smoke,   turn   round   and    round,   stand   and   tremble, 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  57 

until  they  are  burnt  to  death:  which  often  happens  in 
this  country,  in  a  conflagration  of  the  plains." 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  Ross  is  speak- 
ing of  wolves  of  the  western  mountains,  animals  which 
were  not  familiar  with  the  buffalo,  and  which  now,  since 
horses  had  been  brought  into  the  country,  had  been 
supplied  with  a  new  food  animal.  Ross  says  also,  and 
he  is  almost  the  only  writer  who  speaks  of  anything  of 
this  kind,  that  wolves  sometimes  attacked  men,  and 
instances  two  men  forced  to  take  shelter  for  several 
hours  in  a  tree  by  a  band  of  seventeen  wolves. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  a  change  of  heart  began 
to  take  place  among  the  authorities  of  the  Northwest 
Company.  Since  Astoria  had  become  Fort  George 
few  or  no  steps  had  been  taken  to  make  the  most  of 
the  possibihties  of  the  country,  but  those  who  were  on 
the  ground  dwelt  constantly  on  the  poverty  of  the 
country,  the  hostiHty  of  the  Indians,  and  the  imprac- 
ticability of  trade.  The  people  who  came  over  the 
mountains  to  take  the  place  of  the  Astorians  brought 
with  them  their  habits  of  the  fur  country  of  the  east, 
and  seemed  unable  to  change  them.  The  traders  from 
the  east  preferred  the  birch-bark  canoe,  and  spent 
much  time  in  searching  for  bark.  It  was  even  pro- 
vided— lest  that  of  good  quality  should  not  be  found 
on  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  slope — that  a  stock  of 
bark  should  be  shipped  from  Montreal  to  London,  and 
thence  around  Cape  Horn  to  Fort  George,  in  order 
that  canoes  might  be  made. 


58  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

In  1816  the  Columbia  River  district  was  divided 
by  the  authorities  at  Fort  William  into  two  separate 
departments,  each  one  with  a  bourgeois  at  the  head. 
Mr.  Keith  was  chosen  to  preside  at  Fort  George,  while 
Mr.  McKenzie  was  given  charge  of  the  department  of 
the  interior.  There  was  much  grumbling  at  this  last 
appointment.  Ross  was  appointed  as  second  in  com- 
mand to  Mr.  Keith.  Shortly  after  this  there  were 
various  troubles  at  Fort  George,  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant being  the  desertion  of  the  blacksmith  Jacob, 
who  fled  to  a  hostile  tribe,  from  which  he  was  taken  by 
Ross,  who  went  after  him  with  thirty  men.  The  en- 
terprise was  one  which  required  that  courage  and  en- 
durance which  Ross  so  often  displayed  in  times  of 
difficulty.  The  west  coast  trade  was  further  compli- 
cated by  the  jealousy  which  Mr.  Keith  felt  for  Mr. 
McKenzie.  These  difficulties  were  overcome,  and  Mc- 
Kenzie again  set  out  for  his  interior  command,  accom- 
panied by  a  force  of  Iroquois,  Abenakis,  and  Sand- 
wich Islanders.  Mr.  Keith  remained  in  command  at 
Fort  George. 

Many  of  the  hunters  and  trappers  at  Fort  George 
lacked  experience  in  dealing  with  the  natives,  and 
before  long  there  was  trouble  with  the  Indians.  These 
tried  to  exact  tribute  from  the  fur  traders  for  trapping 
on  the  tribal  land,  and  the  fur  traders,  far  from  showing 
patience,  were  quite  ready  to  quarrel.  One  or  more  of 
the  hunters  were  wounded  on  the  Willamette  and 
some  Indians  were  killed.     Ross  was  sent  out  to  try  to 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  59 

effect  a  reconciliation,  but,  as  so  often  is  the  case  where 
Indians  have  been  killed,  the  people  in  the  camps  de- 
clined to  smoke  and  to  consider  any  other  course  than 
war.  It  was  only  by  the  exercise  of  great  patience  and 
forbearance,  and  finally  by  the  gift  of  a  flag  to  a  chief, 
that  the  trouble  was  at  last  smoothed  over,  and  the 
opposing  parties  smoked  and  made  long  speeches  and 
then  concluded  a  treaty — the  whites  having  paid  for 
the  dead — which  greatly  pleased  Mr.  Keith. 

McKenzie  on  his  way  up  the  Columbia  did  not  get 
beyond  the  Cascades,  for  here  he  found  the  river  frozen; 
so  he  camped  and  spent  the  winter  among  the  Indians, 
showing,  in  his  deahngs  with  them,  remarkable  tact 
and  judgment. 

Ross  describes  with  some  humor  the  happenings  at 
a  feast,  such  as  frequently  took  place  in  the  camp 
where  McKenzie  now  was : 

"On  the  score  of  cheer,  we  will  here  gratify  the  cu- 
riosity of  our  readers  with  a  brief  description  of  one  of 
their  entertainments,  called  an  Indian  feast.  The  first 
thing  that  attracts  the  attention  of  a  stranger,  on 
being  invited  to  a  feast  in  these  parts,  is,  to  see  seven 
or  eight  busthng  squaws  running  to  and  fro  with  pieces 
of  greasy  bark,  skins  of  animals,  and  old  mats,  to  fur- 
nish the  banqueting  lodge,  as  receptacles  for  the  deli- 
cate viands:  at  the  door  of  the  lodge  is  placed,  on 
such  occasions,  a  sturdy  savage  with  a  club  in  his 
hand,  to  keep  the  dogs  at  bay,  while  the  preparations 
are  going  on. 


6o  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

"The  banqueting  hall  is  always  of  a  size  suitable  to 
the  occasion,  large  and  roomy.  A  fire  occupies  the 
centre,  round  which,  in  circular  order,  are  laid  the 
eatables.  The  guests  form  a  close  ring  round  the 
whole.  Every  one  approaches  with  a  grave  and  sol- 
emn step.  The  party  being  all  assembled,  the  reader 
may  picture  to  himself  our  friend  seated  among  the 
nobles  of  the  place,  his  bark  platter  between  his  legs, 
filled  top-heavy  with  the  most  delicious  ^nelange  of 
bear's  grease,  dog's  flesh,  wappatoes,  obellies,  amutes, 
and  a  profusion  of  other  viands,  roots  and  berries. 
Round  the  festive  board,  placed  on  terra  firmdy  all  the 
nabobs  of  the  place  are  squatted  down  in  a  circle,  each 
helping  himself  out  of  his  platter  with  his  fingers,  ob- 
serving every  now  and  then  to  sleek  down  the  hair  by 
way  of  wiping  the  hands.  Only  one  knife  is  used,  and 
that  is  handed  round  from  one  to  another  in  quick 
motion.  Behind  the  banqueting  circle  sit,  in  anxious 
expectation,  groups  of  the  canine  tribe,  yawning,  howl- 
ing, and  growHng;  these  can  only  be  kept  in  the  rear 
by  a  stout  cudgel,  which  each  of  the  guests  keeps  by 
him,  for  the  purpose  of  self-defence;  yet  it  not  unfre- 
quently  happens  that  some  one  of  the  more  daring  curs 
gets  out  of  patience,  breaks  through  the  front  rank, 
and  carries  off  his  booty;  but  when  a  trespass  of  this 
kind  is  committed,  the  unfortunate  offender  is  well 
belaboured  in  his  retreat,  for  the  cudgels  come  down 
upon  him  with  a  terrible  vengeance.  The  poor  dog, 
however,  has  his  revenge  in  turn,  for  the  squabble  and 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  6i 

brawl  that  ensues  disturbs  all  the  dormant  fleas  of  the 
domicile.  This  troop  of  black  assailants  jump  about 
in  all  directions,  so  that  a  guest,  by  helping  himself 
to  the  good  things  before  him,  keeping  the  dogs  at  bay 
behind  him,  and  defending  himself  from  the  black 
squadrons  that  surround  him,  pays,  perhaps,  dearer 
for  his  entertainment  at  the  Columbian  Cascades  than 
a  foreign  ambassador  does  in  a  London  hotel!" 

On  leaving  this  place  in  the  spring,  the  traders  broke 
one  of  their  boats  while  towing  it  up  the  Cascades,  and 
there  was  no  room  in  the  other  boats  to  load  the  cargo 
of  the  one  that  had  been  broken.  There  were  sixty 
packages,  of  ninety  pounds  each,  and  this  large  and 
valuable  cargo  McKenzie  turned  over  to  a  chief,  to  be 
kept  for  him  until  his  return.  When  the  brigade  re- 
turned six  months  later  the  whole  cargo  was  handed 
over  safe  and  untouched  to  McKenzie.  Such  care  for 
the  property  of  their  guests  was  often  given  by  the 
old-time  Indians. 

The  next  summer  when  the  inland  brigade  left  Fort 
George  for  the  interior,  Ross  accompanied  it,  for  he 
was  starting  for  his  own  post  at  She-Whaps.  As  usual, 
there  were  many  annoyances — men  deserted,  others 
fell  sick,  some  of  the  Iroquois  were  about  to  fire  on  the 
native  Indians — and  altogether  the  leaders  of  the  party 
had  their  hands  full  in  trying  to  keep  peace. 

Ross  had  with  him  a  httle  dog  which  an  Indian  one 
morning  got  hold  of  and  carried  away.  The  dog, 
anxious  to  get  back  to  his  master,  in  its  struggles  to 


62  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

escape  happened  to  scratch  one  of  the  children  of  his 
captor,  and  presently  Ross  saw  the  dog  running  to  him, 
followed  by  two  men  with  guns  in  their  hands.  The 
dog  lay  down  by  its  master's  feet,  and  one  of  the  In- 
dians cocked  his  gun  to  shoot  the  animal.  Ross 
jumped  up  and  took  the  gun  from  the  Indian,  who 
seemed  very  angry  and  demanded  it  again.  After  a 
time  Ross  handed  it  back  to  him,  at  the  same  time 
picking  up  his  own  gun  and  teUing  the  Indian  that  if 
he  attempted  to  kill  the  dog  he  himself  would  die. 
The  man  did  not  shoot  the  dog,  but  telling  his  trouble 
to  the  other  Indians,  they  gathered  about  Ross  and 
there  was  every  prospect  of  a  pretty  quarrel.  How- 
ever, Ross  and  McKenzie,  strong  in  their  knowledge 
of  Indian  character,  smoothed  things  over,  made  a 
httle  gift  to  the  child  that  had  been  scratched,  gave 
the  chief  some  tobacco,  and  presently  went  on  their 
way  with  the  apparent  good-will  of  the  whole  camp. 

A  day  or  two  later  another  example  was  seen  of  the 
way  in  which  Ross  handled  the  Indians.  The  chiefs 
and  the  traders  were  smoking  and  talking. 

"While  thus  engaged,  and  the  crowd  thronging 
around  us,  a  fellow  more  like  a  baboon  than  a  man, 
with  a  head  full  of  feathers  and  a  countenance  of  brass, 
having  a  fine  gun  in  his  hand,  called  out,  'How  long 
are  the  whites  to  pass  here,  troubling  our  waters  and 
scaring  our  fish,  without  paying  us?  Look  at  all  these 
bales  of  goods  going  to  our  enemies,'  said  he;  'and  look 
at  our  wives  and  children  naked.'     The  fellow  then 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  63 

made  a  pause,  as  if  waiting  an  answer;  but,  as  good 
fortune  would  have  it,  the  rest  of  the  Indians  paid  but 
Httle  attention  to  him.  No  answer  was  made;  nor 
was  it  a  time  to  discuss  the  merits  or  demerits  of  such 
a  question.  Happening,  however,  to  be  near  the  fel- 
low when  he  spoke,  I  turned  briskly  round,  'So  long,' 
said  I,  'as  the  Indians  smoke  our  tobacco;  just  so  long, 
and  no  longer,  will  the  whites  pass  here.'  Then  I  put 
some  questions  to  him  in  turn.  'Who  gave  you  that 
fine  gun  on  your  hand?'  'The  whites,'  answered  he. 
*And  who  gives  you  tobacco  to  smoke  .^'  'The  whites,' 
he  rephed.  Continuing  the  subject,  'Are  you  fond  of 
your  gun?-^  'Yes.'  'And  are  you  fond  of  tobacco  to 
smoke?'  To  this  question  also  the  reply  was  'Yes.' 
'Then,'  said  I,  'you  ought  to  be  fond  of  the  whites  who 
supply  all  your  wants.'  'Oh,  yes!'  rejoined  he.  The 
nature  of  the  questions  and  answers  set  the  bystanders 
laughing;  and  taking  no  further  notice  of  the  rascal,  he 
sneaked  off  among  the  crowd,  and  we  saw  him  no  more. 
The  question  put  by  the  feathered  baboon  amounted 
to  nothing  in  itself;  but  it  proved  that  the  subject  of 
tribute  had  been  discussed  among  the  Indians." 

There  was  constant  demand  for  readiness  and  quick- 
wittedness,  for  the  whites  were  very  few  in  number 
and  the  Indians  numerous;  moreover,  these  primitive 
people  were  altogether  disposed  to  see  how  far  the 
whites  would  permit  them  to  go,  and  it  was  thus  ex- 
ceedingly easy  to  begin  a  quarrel  about  some  trifling 
matter  in  which  blood  might  be  shed. 


64  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

From  his  post  in  the  She-Whaps  Ross  soon  went  east 
toward  the  Rocky  Mountains,  having  been  ordered  to 
explore  this  country  and  see  what  it  contained.  He  set 
out  on  foot  with  two  of  his  best  hands  and  two  Indians. 
Each  carried  as  baggage  one-half  dozen  pairs  of  mocca- 
sins, a  blanket,  some  ammunition,  needles,  thread,  and 
tobacco,  besides  a  small  axe,  a  knife,  a  lire  steel,  and  an 
awl.  All  they  had  besides  was  a  kettle  and  a  pint  pot. 
For  subsistence  they  depended  on  their  guns,  and  for  a 
further  supply  of  shoes  and  clothing  on  the  animals 
that  they  might  kill  by  the  way. 

The  country  was  extraordinarily  rough.  Fur-bear- 
ing animals  were  not  plenty,  but  game  was  abundant, 
elk  and  deer  being  seen  in  great  numbers,  and  so  tame 
as  to  make  it  appear  that  they  had  never  been  dis- 
turbed. 

In  six  days'  travel  down  a  stream,  which  Ross  calls 
the  Grisly-bear,  they  shot  four  elks,  twenty-two  deer, 
two  otters,  two  beavers,  and  three  black  bears,  without 
stepping  out  of  the  trail.  A  Httle  later  they  saw  moose, 
and  still  later  is  given  a  curious  account  of  a  battle 
between  two  large  birds,  both  of  which  were  captured. 
One  of  these  was  a  white-headed  eagle  which  weighed 
eight  and  three-quarter  pounds,  and  the  other  "a  wild- 
turkey  cock,  or  what  we  call  the  Columbia  grouse," 
which  could  only  have  been  a  sage  grouse.  This  is 
said  to  have  weighed  eleven  and  one-quarter  pounds! 

During  this  same  summer  McKenzie  had  trouble 
with  the  Iroquois — seemingly  most  untrustworthy  ser- 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  65 

vants — who  tried  to  kill  McKenzie,  perhaps  with  the 
idea  of  taking  all  the  property  of  the  expedition.  How- 
ever, McKenzie's  quickness  and  readiness  enabled  him 
to  put  the  Iroquois  to  flight. 

Soon  after  his  return  from  his  Eastern  exploration 
Ross  was  invited  by  the  Indians  to  accompany  them 
on  a  bear-hunt,  which  he  describes: 

"The  party  were  all  mounted  on  horseback,  to  the 
number  of  seventy-three,  and  exhibited  a  fine  display 
of  horsemanship.  After  some  ten  miles'  travel,  we 
commenced  operations.  Having  reached  the  hunting- 
ground,  the  party  separated  into  several  divisions.  We 
then  perambulated  the  woods,  crossed  rivers,  sur- 
rounded thickets,  and  scampered  over  hill  and  dale, 
with  yell  and  song,  for  the  greater  part  of  two  days; 
during  which  time  we  killed  seven  bears,  nine  wolves, 
and  eleven  small  deer:  one  of  the  former  I  had  the  good 
luck  to  shoot  myself.  In  the  evening  of  the  third  day, 
however,  our  sport  was  checked  by  an  accident.  One 
of  the  great  men,  the  chief  Pacha  of  the  hunting  party, 
named  Tu-tack-it,  Is-tso-augh-an,  or  Short  Legs,  got 
severely  wounded  by  a  female  bear. 

"The  only  danger  to  be  apprehended  in  these  savage 
excursions  is  by  following  the  wounded  animal  into  a 
thicket,  or  hiding-place;  but  with  the  Indians  the  more 
danger  the  more  honour,  and  some  of  them  are  fool- 
hardy enough  to  run  every  hazard  in  order  to  strike 
the  last  fatal  blow,  (in  which  the  honour  lies,)  sometimes 
with  a  lance,  tomahawk,  or  knife,  at  the  risk  of  their 


66  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

lives.  No  sooner  is  a  bear  wounded  than  it  immediately 
flies  for  refuge  to  some  hiding-place,  unless  too  closely 
pursued;  in  which  case,  it  turns  round  in  savage  fury 
on  its  pursuers,  and  woe  awaits  whoever  is  in  the  way. 

"The  bear  in  question  had  been  wounded  and  took 
shelter  in  a  small  coppice.  The  bush  was  instantly 
surrounded  by  the  horsemen,  when  the  more  bold 
and  daring  entered  it  on  foot,  armed  with  gun,  knife, 
and  tomahawk.  Among  the  bushrangers  on  the  pres- 
ent occasion  was  the  chief.  Short  Legs,  who,  while 
scrambling  over  some  fallen  timber,  happened  to  stum- 
ble near  to  where  the  wounded  and  enraged  bear  was 
concealed,  but  too  close  to  be  able  to  defend  himself 
before  the  vicious  animal  got  hold  of  him.  At  that 
moment  I  was  not  more  than  five  or  six  paces  from  the 
chief,  but  could  not  get  a  chance  of  shooting,  so  I 
immediately  called  out  for  help,  when  several  mustered 
round  the  spot.  Availing  ourselves  of  the  doubtful 
alternative  of  killing  her — even  at  the  risk  of  kilHng  the 
chief — we  fired,  and  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  shot 
the  animal  and  saved  the  man;  then  carrying  the  bear 
and  wounded  chief  out  of  the  bush,  we  laid  both  on 
the  open  ground.  The  sight  of  the  chief  was  appalling: 
the  scalp  was  torn  from  the  crown  of  his  head,  down 
over  the  eyebrows!  he  was  insensible,  and  for  some 
time  we  all  thought  him  dead;  but  after  a  short  inter- 
val his  pulse  began  to  beat,  and  he  gradually  showed 
signs  of  returning  animation. 

"It  was  a  curious  and  somewhat  interesting  scene  to 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  (i'j 

see  the  party  approach  the  spot  where  the  accident 
happened.  Not  being  able  to  get  a  chance  of  shooting, 
they  threw  their  guns  from  them,  and  could  scarcely 
be  restrained  from  rushing  on  the  fierce  animal  with 
their  knives  only.  The  bear  all  the  time  kept  looking 
first  at  one,  then  at  another,  and  casting  her  fierce  and 
flaming  eyes  around  the  whole  of  us,  as  if  ready  to 
make  a  spring  at  each;  yet  she  never  let  go  her  hold 
of  the  chief;  but  stood  over  him.  Seeing  herself  sur- 
rounded by  so  many  enemies,  she  moved  her  head 
from  one  position  to  another,  and  these  movements 
gave  us  ultimately  an  opportunity  of  killing  her. 

"The  misfortune  produced  a  loud  and  clamorous 
scene  of  mourning  among  the  chief's  relations;  we  has- 
tened home,  carrying  our  dead  bears  along  with  us,  and 
arrived  at  the  camp  early  in  the  morning  of  the  fourth 
day.  The  chief  remained  for  three  days  speechless. 
In  cutting  off  the  scalp  and  dressing  the  wound,  we 
found  the  skull,  according  to  our  imperfect  knowledge 
of  anatomy,  fractured  in  two  or  three  places;  and  at 
the  end  of  eight  days,  I  extracted  a  bone  measuring 
two  inches  long,  of  an  oblong  form,  and  another  of 
about  an  inch  square,  with  several  smaller  pieces,  all 
from  the  crowrf  of  the  head !  The  wound,  however, 
gradually  closed  up  and  healed,  except  a  small  spot 
about  the  size  of  an  English  shilHng.  In  fifteen  days, 
by  the  aid  of  Indian  medicine,  he  was  able  to  walk 
about,  and  at  the  end  of  six  weeks  from  the  time  he  got 
wounded,  he  was  on  horseback  again  at  the  chace." 


68  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

More  or  less  wolf-hunting  was  done  through  the  win- 
ter, and  Ross  describes  certain  methods  of  catching 
and  kiUing  these  animals. 

The  killing  of  wolves,  foxes,  and  other  wild  animals 
by  the  whites  was  really  only  a  recreation,  and  the 
traders  preferred  shooting  them  to  any  other  mode  of 
destruction.  The  wolves  were  usually  afoot  and  search- 
ing for  food  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night.  They 
liked  to  get  up  on  nearby  hills  or  knolls,  to  sit  and 
look  about.  It  was  the  practice  of  the  traders  to  scatter 
food  about  the  places  frequented  by  the  wolves,  and — 
when  there  were  no  wolves  there — to  practise  shooting 
at  a  mark,  watching  where  the  balls  hit  and  learning 
the  elevation  of  the  gun  required  to  reach  the  spot, 
until  finally  many  of  them  became  very  expert  at  this 
long-distance  shooting. 

"A  band  of  Indians  happening  to  come  to  the  fort 
one  day,  and  observing  a  wolf  on  one  of  the  favourite 
places  of  resort,  several  of  them  prepared  to  take  a 
circuitous  turn  to  have  a  shot  at  the  animal.  Seeing 
them  prepare — 'Try,'  said  I,  'and  kill  it  from  where 
you  are.'  The  Indians  smiled  at  my  ignorance.  'Can 
the  whites,'  said  the  chief,  'kill  it  at  that  distance?* 
*The  whites,'  said  I,  'do  not  live  by  hunting  or  shoot- 
ing as  do  the  Indians,  or  they  might.'  'There  is  no 
gun,'  continued  the  chief,  'that  could  kill  at  that  dis- 
tance.' By  this  time  the  wolf  had  laid  hold  of  a  bone, 
or  piece  of  flesh,  and  was  scampering  off  with  it,  at  full 
speed,  to  the  opposite  woods.     Taking  hold  of  my  gun 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  69 

— 'If  we  cannot  kill  it,'  said  I,  'we  shall  make  it  let  go 
its  prey.'  'My  horse  against  your  shot,'  called  out 
the  chief,  'that  you  do  not  hit  the  wolf.'  'Done,'  said 
I;  but  I  certainly  thought  within  myself  that  the  chief 
ran  no  great  risk  of  losing  his  horse,  nor  the  wolf  of 
losing  his  life.  Taking  an  elevation  of  some  fifteen  or 
sixteen  feet  over  it,  by  chance  I  shot  the  animal  in 
his  flight,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  chief,  as  well  as 
all  present,  who,  clapping  their  hands  to  their  mouths 
in  amazement,  measured  the  distance  by  five  arrow- 
shots:  nothing  but  their  wonder  could  exceed  their 
admiration  of  this  effect  of  fire-arms. 

"When  the  ball  struck  the  wolf,  it  was  in  the  act  of 
leaping;  and  we  may  judge  of  its  speed  at  the  time, 
from  the  fact  that  the  distance  from  whence  it  took 
the  last  leap  to  where  it  was  lying  stretched,  measured 
twenty-four  feet!  The  ball  struck  the  wolf  in  the  left 
thigh,  and  passing  through  the  body,  neck  and  head, 
it  lodged  in  the  lower  jaw;  I  cut  it  out  with  my  pen- 
knife. The  chief,  on  dehvering  up  his  horse,  which 
he  did  cheerfully,  asked  me  for  the  ball,  and  that  ball 
was  the  favourite  ornament  of  his  neck  for  years  after- 
wards. The  horse  I  returned  to  its  owner.  The  In- 
dians then  asked  me  for  the  skin  of  the  dead  wolf; 
and  to  each  of  the  guns  belonging  to  the  party  was  ap- 
pended a  piece:  the  Indians  fancying  that  the  skin 
would  enable  them,  in  future,  to  kill  animals  at  a  great 
distance." 

The  following  summer,   McKenzie  with   Ross   and 


70  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ninety-five  men  went  up  the  river  and  encamped  at 
the  site  determined  on  for  the  new  estabhshment  of 
Fort  Nez  Perces,  about  one-half  mile  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Walla  Walla.  This  countrj^  was  occupied  by 
Indians  of  the  Shahaptian  stock — fierce,  good  war- 
riors, and  impulsive — easily  moved  in  one  direction  or 
the  other.  They  seemed  by  no  means  favorable  to 
the  coming  whites;  did  not  shake  hands  with  them,  and 
in  fact  appeared  disposed  to  boycott  the  new  arrivals. 

The  situation  was  a  difficult  one,  because  the  con- 
struction of  a  fort  required  a  dividing  of  the  party  into 
many  small  bands,  and  also  because  more  Indians  were 
constantly  coming  in,  and  their  actions  caused  much 
uneasiness.  They  insisted  on  receiving  pay  for  the 
timber  to  be  used  in  building  the  fort;  they  forbade 
hunting  and  fishing;  they  set  the  price  on  all  articles 
of  trade,  and  it  was  difficult  to  know  what  the  outcome 
of  this  might  be. 

The  difficulties  threatening  the  traders  caused  an 
almost  complete  suspension  of  work.  They  stood  on 
their  guard,  ready  for  an  attack  at  any  time,  while 
for  five  days  there  was  no  intercourse  between  whites 
and  Indians;  food  was  short,  and  one  night  the  party 
went  to  bed  supperless.  The  Indians  continued  to 
gather,  and  the  traders  thought  that  they  were  plot- 
ting and  planning — no  one  knew  what. 

A  slight  enclosure  had  been  put  up,  behind  which  the 
traders  awaited  whatever  might  happen.  After  a  time, 
the  chiefs  opened   negotiations  with   the  whites   and 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  71 

insisted  that  hberal  presents  should  be  made  to  all 
the  Indians  roundabout,  in  order  to  gain  their  favor. 
This  was  obviously  impracticable,  since  all  the  property 
of  the  traders  would  not  have  sufficed  to  make  a  pres- 
ent to  each  Indian,  and  the  demand  was  refused,  with 
the  result  that  the  firmness  of  the  white  men  caused 
the  Indians  to  reduce  their  requests  and  finally  to  sub- 
mit to  the  proposals  of  the  whites,  and  as  soon  as  this 
was  agreed  on  a  brisk  trade  went  on. 

The  position  chosen  for  the  fort  was  noteworthy 
among  the  natives  because  it  was  the  ground  on  which, 
some  years  before,  Lewis  and  Clark  had  ratified  a 
general  peace  between  themselves  and  the  tribes  of 
the  surrounding  country.  The  situation  was  com- 
manding. To  the  west  was  a  spacious  view  of  the 
great  river,  to  the  north  and  east  were  the  wide  ex- 
panses of  the  yellow  plains,  while  to  the  south  lay  wild, 
rough  hills  on  either  side  of  the  river,  overlooked  by 
two  singular  towering  rocks  on  the  east  side  of  the 
stream,  called  by  the  natives  "The  Twins."  In  the 
distance  lay  the  Blue  Mountains. 

Presently  a  large  war-party  returned  to  the  camp 
with  scalps  and  captives — a  great  triumph.  Now 
came  a  demand  from  the  Indians  that  the  white  traders 
should  not  give  guns  or  balls  to  the  enemies  of  these 
Indians,  but  after  much  negotiation  and  many  speeches, 
the  Indians  agreed  that  peace  should  be  made  between 
themselves  and  the  Snakes. 

It  was  not  long  after  this  that  a  considerable  party 


72  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

was  sent  off  to  penetrate  the  country  inhabited  by  the 
Snakes  and  other  tribes  to  the  south.  The  traders 
had  secured  two  hundred  and  eighty  horses,  enough 
for  riding  and  packing,  and  the  most  of  these  were  to 
go  off  with  the  Snake  expedition,  which  consisted  of 
fifty-five  men,  nearly  two  hundred  horses,  three  hun- 
dred beaver-traps,  and  a  considerable  stock  of  trade 
goods.  Mr.  McKenzie  led  the  expedition,  which  left 
Fort  Nez  Perces  at  the  end  of  September.  Ross,  with 
the  remaining  party,  stayed  at  the  Fort. 

The  neighboring  Indians,  of  whom  Ross  speaks  in 
most  cordial  terms,  treated  the  traders  well  and  were 
respectful  and  good-natured,  but  presently  came  rumors 
of  difiiculties  between  the  trading  party  to  the  Snakes 
and  that  tribe,  and  one  of  these  rumors  was  confirmed 
by  the  arrival  of  a  member  of  that  expedition,  an  Iro- 
quois, who  had  evidently  had  a  hard  time.  According 
to  his  account,  the  Iroquois  after  a  time  separated 
from  McKenzie  to  trap  a  small  river  which  was  well 
stocked  with  beaver.  The  Iroquois,  according  to  the 
story,  began  to  exchange  their  horses,  guns,  and  traps 
with  a  small  party  of  Snakes,  and  presently  had  little 
or  nothing  left.  The  returned  Iroquois  man  got  lost, 
and  finally,  with  great  difficulty,  without  food,  blanket, 
or  arms,  got  back  to  Fort  Nez  Perces.  Other  Iro- 
quois returned  and  told  various  stories,  and  finally, 
going  back  to  Fort  George,  persuaded  Mr.  Keith  to  send 
out  a  party  to  punish  the  Indians,  who  they  said  had 
injured  them.     Such  a  party  was  sent  out  to  the  Cow- 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  73 

litz  River,  and  the  Iroquois  getting  away  from  Mr. 
Ogden  killed  twelve  men,  women,  and  children,  and 
scalped  three  of  them.  This  seemed  fatal  to  further 
friendly  relations;  nevertheless,  at  last  peace  was  con- 
cluded between  the  traders  and  the  Cowlitz  Indians, 
and  was  sealed  by  the  marriage  of  the  chief's  daughter 
to  one  of  the  fur  traders. 

There  was  more  sporadic  fighting  and  killing  of 
Indians  and  the  murder  of  five  people  belonging  to  Fort 
George,  so  that  things  got  into  a  very  bad  condition, 
which  it  took  a  long  time  to  smooth  over. 

Late  in  the  season  Mr.  McKenzie  with  six  men  on 
snow-shoes  returned  from  the  interior  and  gave  an 
interesting  account  of  the  new  country  through  which 
he  had  passed — a  country  to  him  not  wholly  new,  be- 
cause he  had  been  through  it  in  181 1.  He  reported 
that  the  Iroquois,  instead  of  trapping  and  hunting, 
had  separated  and  were  scattered  all  over  the  country 
by  twos  and  threes,  living  with  the  Indians,  without 
horses,  without  traps,  without  furs,  and  without  cloth- 
ing.    He  left  them  as  he  found  them. 

Of  the  region  traversed,  Mr  McKenzie  reported : 

"On  our  outward  journey,  the  surface  was  moun- 
tainous and  rugged,  and  still  more  so  on  our  way  back. 
Woods  and  valleys,  rocks  and  plains,  rivers  and  ra- 
vines, alternately  met  us;  but  altogether  it  is  a  delight- 
ful country.  There  animals  of  every  class  rove  about 
undisturbed;  wherever  there  was  a  little  plain,  the  red 
deer  were  seen  grazing  in  herds  about  the  rivers;  round 


74  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

every  other  point  were  clusters  of  poplar  and  elder, 
and  where  there  was  a  sapHng,  the  ingenious  and  in- 
dustrious beaver  was  at  work.  Otters  sported  in  the 
eddies;  the  wolf  and  the  fox  were  seen  sauntering  in 
quest  of  prey;  now  and  then  a  few  cypresses  or  stunted 
pines  were  met  with  on  the  rocky  parts,  and  in  their 
spreading  tops  the  raccoon  sat  secure.  In  the  woods, 
the  martin  and  black  fox  were  numerous;  the  badger 
sat  quietly  looking  from  his  mound;  and  in  the  number- 
less ravines,  among  bushes  laden  with  fruits,  the 
black,  the  brown,  and  the  grisly  bear  were  seen.  The 
mountain  sheep,  and  goat  white  as  snow,  browsed  on 
the  rocks,  and  ridges;  and  the  big  horn  species  ran 
among  the  lofty  cliffs.  Eagles  and  vultures,  of  un- 
common size,  flew  about  the  rivers.  When  we  ap- 
proached, most  of  these  animals  stood  motionless;  they 
would  then  move  off  a  httle  distance,  but  soon  came 
anew  to  satisfy  a  curiosity  that  often  proved  fatal  to 
them. 

"The  report  of  a  gun  did  not  alarm  them:  they  would 
give  a  frisk  at  each  shot,  and  stand  again;  but  when 
the  flag  was  unfurled,  being  of  a  reddish  hue,  it  was 
with  apparent  reluctance  they  would  retire  beyond  the 
pleasing  sight.  Hordes  of  wild  horses  were  likewise 
seen  on  this  occasion;  and  of  all  the  animals  seen  on 
our  journey  they  were  the  wildest,  for  none  of  them 
could  be  approached;  their  scent  is  exceedingly  keen, 
their  hearing  also;  and  in  their  curiosity  they  were  never 
known  to  come  at  any  time  within  gun-shot.     One 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  75 

band  of  these  contained  more  than  two  hundred. 
Some  of  them  were  browsing  on  the  face  of  the  hills; 
others  were  running  like  deer  up  and  down  the  steeps; 
and  some  were  galloping  backwards  and  forwards  on 
the  brows  of  the  sloping  mountains,  with  their  flowing 
manes  and  bushy  tails  streaming  in  the  wind." 

Mr.  McKenzie's  successful  trip  commanded  the  ad- 
miration of  all  of  the  council  of  the  head  men  at  Fort 
George.  Those  who  had  formerly  been  opposed  to 
him  were  now  loud  in  his  praises,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  Fort  Nez  Perces  and  the  gaining  of  a  foothold 
in  the  Snake  country  were  warmly  approved.  He  re- 
mained at  Fort  Nez  Perces  only  seven  days  and  then 
started  back  again.  His  report  of  the  prospects  in 
the  Snake  country  was  gratifying,  but  his  people  were 
giving  great  trouble. 

Ill 

INDIANS  AND  THEIR  BATTLES 

Fort  Nez  Perces  was  stockaded  with  an  enclosure 
of  pickets  of  sawn  timber  some  twelve  or  fifteen  feet 
high  with  four  towers  or  bastions.  The  pickets  were 
two  and  one-half  feet  broad  by  six  inches  thick.  Near 
the  top  of  the  stockade  was  a  balustrade  four  feet 
high,  and  a  gallery  five  feet  broad  extended  all  around 
it,  while  the  walls  were  loopholed.  At  each  angle  of 
the  fort  was  a  large  reservoir  holding  two  hundred  gal- 
lons of  water,  and  within  the  stockade  were  all  the 


"]6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

buildings,  warehouses,  stores,  and  dwelHng-houses. 
These  buildings  were  all  loopholed  and  had  sliding 
doors,  and  the  trading-room  was  arranged  with  a 
small  door  in  the  wall,  eighteen  inches  square,  through 
which  the  Indians  passed  their  furs,  receiving  from  the 
traders  on  the  inside  the  goods  to  which  they  were 
entitled.  The  outer  gate  was  arranged  to  open  and 
shut  by  a  pulley,  and  besides  this  there  were  two 
double  doors.  Except  on  special  occasions,  the  In- 
dians were  never  invited  into  the  fort.  Nevertheless, 
at  the  gate  there  was  a  house  for  the  accommodation 
of  the  Indians,  with  fire,  tobacco,  and  a  man  to  look 
after  them  at  all  times.  The  Indians,  however,  did  not 
like  this  arrangement,  because  it  seemed  to  show  sus- 
picion on  the  part  of  the  white  men;  they  themselves 
were  suspicious  of  some  plots.  They  asked  whether 
the  traders  were  afraid  of  them  or  afraid  that  they 
would  steal,  and  while  the  traders  denied  that  they  were 
afraid  of  anything,  they  persisted  in  their  plan,  and  at 
length  the  Indians  accepted  the  situation.  The  traders 
were  supplied  with  cannons,  swivels,  muskets,  and  bay- 
onets, boarding-pikes  and  hand-grenades,  while  above 
the  gate  stood  a  small  mortar.  The  position  was  a 
strong  one,  and  Ross  calls  it  the  "Gibraltar  of  Co- 
lumbia" and  speaks  of  it  as  "a  triumph  of  British 
energy  and  enterprise,  of  civiHzation  over  barbarism." 
McKenzie,  on  his  return  to  the  interior,  had  prom- 
ised to  be  at  the  river  Skam-naugh  about  the  5th  of 
June  and  had  asked  that  an  outfit  with  suppUes  for 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  77 

his  party  be  sent  to  meet  him  there.  For  this  reason 
Ross  returned  from  his  annual  trip  to  Fort  George 
nearly  a  month  earlier  than  usual — by  the  15th  of 
May.  A  party  of  fifteen  men  under  a  clerk  named 
Kittson  was  sent  out  to  take  McKenzie  his  suppHes 
and  reinforce  him.  Kittson  was  a  new  man  in  the 
service,  and  was  full  of  confidence  that  he  could  handle 
and  defeat  all  the  Indians  on  the  continent.  He  had 
good  luck  until  the  party  got  into  the  debatable  land 
in  the  Snake  territory,  and  here,  first,  a  dozen  of  his 
horses  were  stolen,  and  then,  a  little  later,  all  of 
them. 

Meantime  McKenzie  had  had  the  usual  difficulties 
with  his  Iroquois  trappers,  who  could  not  be  trusted 
with  goods  to  trade  with  the  Snakes.  When  the  peo- 
ple whom  he  expected  to  meet  at  the  river  were  not 
there,  he  sent  out  ten  men  to  look  for  them.  Two 
days  after  starting,  as  they  were  passing  through  a 
canyon,  they  met,  face  to  face,  the  Indians  who  had 
just  taken  all  of  Kittson's  horses,  and,  recognizing  the 
animals,  charged  the  three  horse-thieves.  One  was 
killed,  another  wounded  and  escaped,  and  a  third  was 
taken  captive,  and  the  traders  turned  the  herd  about 
and  drove  the  horses  back  to  Kittson's  camp. 

Kittson  now  had  thirty-six  men  and  joined  Mc- 
Kenzie, on  the  way  capturing  two  more  Indian  horse- 
thieves,  caught  at  night  while  cutting  loose  the  horses. 
Kittson  handed  over  his  supplies,  received  McKenzie's 
furs,  and  set  out  again  for  Fort  Nez  Perces. 


78  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

When  McKenzIe  and  Kittson  separated,  the  former 
had  only  three  men  left  with  him,  for  his  Iroquois  did 
not  arrive,  as  expected.  While  waiting  for  them,  a 
threatening  party  of  mountain  Snakes  appeared  at  his 
camp,  who  were  very  importunate,  so  much  so  that 
at  last  McKenzie  took  from  his  pile  of  goods  a  keg 
of  gunpowder  and,  lighting  a  match,  threatened,  if  the 
Indians  continued  to  advance,  to  blow  up  the  whole 
party.  Taken  by  surprise,  they  hesitated,  and  then 
suddenly,  without  a  word,  took  to  flight,  not  from 
fear  of  the  threats  of  McKenzie,  but  because  of  the 
sudden  appearance  of  a  large  war-party  of  Shahaptians 
on  the  other  side  of  the  river.  Fortunately,  these  peo- 
ple could  not  cross  the  high  and  rushing  stream,  but 
a  httle  later  they  made  an  attack  on  Kittson's  party 
and  killed  two  of  his  men.  As  soon  as  the  war-party 
had  gone  McKenzie  and  his  men,  with  their  property, 
crossed  the  channel  of  the  river  to  an  island,  where 
they  remained  twenty-two  days,  until  the  return  of 
Kittson.  McKenzie  and  Kittson  were  now  in  a  situa- 
tion not  at  all  agreeable.  On  one  side  were  the  Nez 
Perces,  on  the  other  the  Blackfeet,  and  all  about  were 
the  Snakes.  All  these  tribes  were  hostile  to  one  an- 
other, and  all  of  them  more  or  less  ill-disposed  toward 
the  whites,  so  the  summer  was  an  anxious  one,  but  Mc- 
Kenzie purposed  to  winter  in  the  upper  country  as 
well  as  he  might.  Here  Ross  interjects  an  interesting 
sketch  of  trappers'  methods. 

"A  safe  and  secure  spot,  near  wood  and  water,  is  first 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  79 

selected  for  the  camp.  Here  the  chief  of  the  party 
resides  with  the  property.  It  is  often  exposed  to 
danger,  or  sudden  attack,  in  the  absence  of  the  trap- 
pers, and  requires  a  vigilant  eye  to  guard  against  the 
lurking  savages.  The  camp  is  called  head  quarters. 
From  hence  all  the  trappers,  some  on  foot,  some  on 
horseback,  according  to  the  distance  they  have  to  go, 
start  every  morning,  in  small  parties,  in  all  directions, 
ranging  the  distance  of  some  twenty  miles  around. 
Six  traps  is  the  allowance  for  each  hunter;  but  to  guard 
against  wear  and  tear,  the  complement  is  more  fre- 
quently ten.  These  he  sets  every  night,  and  visits 
again  in  the  morning;  sometimes  oftener,  according  to 
distance,  or  other  circumstances.  The  beaver  taken 
in  the  traps  are  always  conveyed  to  the  camp,  skinned, 
stretched,  dried,  folded  up  with  the  hair  in  the  inside, 
laid  by,  and  the  flesh  used  for  food.  No  sooner,  there- 
fore, has  a  hunter  ^4sited  his  traps,  set  them  again,  and 
looked  out  for  some  other  place,  than  he  returns  to  the 
camp,  to  feast,  and  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  an  idle  day. 
"There  is,  however,  much  anxiety  and  danger  in 
going  through  the  ordinary  routine  of  a  trapper's  duty. 
For  as  the  enemy  is  generally  lurking  about  among 
the  rocks  and  hiding-places,  watching  an  opportunity, 
the  hunter  has  to  keep  a  constant  lookout;  and  the 
gun  is  often  in  one  hand,  while  the  trap  is  in  the  other. 
But  when  several  are  together,  which  is  often  the  case 
in  suspicious  places,  one-half  set  the  traps,  and  the 
other  half  keep  guard  over  them.     Yet  notwithstand- 


8o  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ing  all  their  precautions,  some  of  them  fall  victims  to 
Indian  treachery. 

"The  camp  remains  stationary  while  two-thirds  of 
the  trappers  find  beaver  in  the  vicinity;  but  whenever 
the  beaver  becomes  scarce,  the  camp  is  removed  to 
some  more  favourable  spot.  In  this  manner,  the  party 
keeps  moving  from  place  to  place,  during  the  whole 
season  of  hunting.  Whenever  serious  danger  is  appre- 
hended, all  the  trappers  make  for  the  camp.  Were 
we,  however,  to  calculate  according  to  numbers,  the 
prospects  from  such  an  expedition  would  be  truly 
dazzling:  say,  seventy-five  men,  with  each  six  traps, 
to  be  successfully  employed  during  five  months;  that 
is,  two  in  the  spring,  and  three  in  the  fall,  equal  to 
131  working  days,  the  result  would  be  58,950  beaver! 
Practically,  however,  the  case  is  very  diff'erent.  The  ap- 
prehension of  danger,  at  all  times,  is  so  great,  that 
three-fourths  of  their  time  is  lost  in  the  necessary  steps 
taken  for  their  own  safety.  There  is  also  another  seri- 
ous drawback  unavoidably  accompanying  every  large 
party.  The  beaver  is  a  timid  animal;  the  least  noise, 
therefore,  made  about  its  haunt  will  keep  it  from  com- 
ing out  for  nights  together;  and  noise  is  unavoidable 
when  the  party  is  large.  But  when  the  party  is  small, 
the  hunter  has  a  chance  of  being  more  or  less  success- 
ful. Indeed,  were  the  nature  of  the  ground  such  as 
to  admit  of  the  trappers  moving  about  in  safety,  at 
all  times,  and  alone,  six  men,  with  six  traps  each,  would, 
in  the  same  space  of  time,  and  at  the  same  rate,  kill 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  8i 

as  many  beavers — say  4,716 — as  the  whole  seventy- 
five  could  be  expected  to  do!  And  yet  the  evil  is  with- 
out a  remedy;  for  no  small  party  can  exist  in  these 
parts.    Hence  the  reason  why  beavers  are  so  numerous." 

Ross  points  out  also  some  of  the  troubles  that  the 
traders  must  meet  with,  which  troubles  were  largely 
due,  of  course,  to  the  absolute  inability  of  the  Indians 
to  comprehend  the  conditions  of  this  new  life.  The 
Indians  asked  for  everything  that  they  saw  and  berated 
the  traders  because  their  requests  were  not  complied 
with.  They  were  constantly  playing  jokes — or  what 
they  considered  jokes — on  the  white  men,  which  were 
irritating  enough;  and  looked  with  contempt  on  the 
whites  who  were  engaged  in  ordinary  labor,  which  they, 
of  course,  did  not  in  the  least  understand.  The  In- 
dians, with  all  their  freedom,  were  far  from  happy,  be- 
cause they  were  in  a  state  of  constant  anxiety  and  alarm. 
People  who  felt  themselves  injured  were  likely  to  make 
war  excursions  and  kill  some  one  belonging  to  another 
tribe,  which,  of  course,  extended  the  field  of  the  trouble. 

When  fighting  took  place,  and  people  supposedly 
friendly  to  the  whites  were  injured,  the  traders  were 
blamed,  because  they  sold  guns,  powder,  and  balls  to 
any  one  who  might  wish  to  trade  with  them.  The 
life  of  the  trader  was  thus  one  of  anxiety,  and  to 
handle  the  Indians  successfully  called  for  extraordinary 
self-control. 

Not  long  before  this  time  some  Shahaptians  had 
killed  two  of  Kittson's  men  and  several  Snakes.     The 


82  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Snakes  followed  them;  but  before  overtaking  them 
came  upon  some  Indians  belonging  to  the  Walla  Walla, 
camped  not  three  miles  from  Fort  Nez  Perces,  where 
they  killed  a  man,  four  women,  and  two  children,  and 
captured  two  young  women  and  a  man.  The  next 
day  the  whole  Walla  Walla  camp  moved  down  to  the 
fort,  carrying  the  bodies  of  the  dead.  Ross  saw  the 
disorderly  procession  coming  on  with  shrieks  and  lam- 
entations, and  at  first  did  not  know  what  to  make  of 
the  advance,  but  presently  the  Indians  reached  the 
gate  of  the  fort,  placed  their  dead  upon  the  ground 
there,  and  began  to  gash  themselves  with  knives  in 
the  oldtime  way  of  mourning.  They  called  to  Ross 
to  come  out  to  them,  and  he,  while  very  reluctant, 
had  no  choice — if  he  was  to  retain  his  influence  with 
them — but  to  obey. 

"Turning  round  to  the  sentinel  at  the  door,  I  told 
him  to  lock  the  gate  after  me,  and  keep  a  sharp  look 
out.  The  moment  I  appeared  outside  the  gate,  so 
horrible  was  the  uproar,  that  it  baffles  all  description. 
Intoxicated  with  wrath  and  savage  rage,  they  resembled 
furies  more  than  human  beings;  and  their  ghastly, 
wild,  and  forbidding  looks  were  all  directed  towards 
me,  as  if  I  had  been  the  cause  of  their  calamity.  Tam- 
a-tap-um  the  chief  then  coming  up  to  me,  and  pointing 
to  one  of  the  dead  bodies,  said,  'You  see  my  sister 
there,'  then  uncovering  the  body  to  show  the  wounds, 
added,  'That  is  a  ball  hole.'  'The  whites',  said  he 
again,   'have   murdered   our  wives   and   our  children. 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  83 

They  have  given  guns  and  balls  to  our  enemies.  Those 
very  guns  and  balls  have  killed  our  relations.'  These 
words  were  no  sooner  uttered  than  they  were  repeated 
over  and  over  again  by  the  whole  frantic  crowd;  who, 
hearing  the  chief,  believed  them  to  be  true.  Excite- 
ment was  now  at  its  height.  Their  gestures,  their 
passionate  exclamations,  showed  what  was  working 
within,  and  I  expected  every  moment  to  receive  a  ball 
or  an  arrow.  One  word  of  interruption  spoken  by  me 
at  the  critical  moment,  in  favour  of  the  whites,  might 
have  proved  fatal  to  myself.  I  therefore  remained 
silent,  watching  a  favourable  opportunity,  and  also  ex- 
amining closely  the  holes  in  the  garments  of  the  dead 
bodies.  The  holes  I  was  convinced  were  made  by 
arrows,  and  not  by  balls  as  the  chief  had  asserted;  but 
it  remained  for  me  to  convince  others  when  an  oppor- 
tunity offered. 

"Every  violent  fit  of  mourning  was  succeeded,  as  is 
generally  the  case  among  savages,  by  a  momentary 
calm.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  I  perceived  the  rage  of 
the  crowd  beginning  to  subside,  and  nature  itself 
beginning  to  flag,  I  availed  myself  of  the  interval  to 
speak  in  turn;  for  silence  then  would  have  been  a  tacit 
acknowledgment  of  our  guilt.  I  therefore  advanced, 
and  taking  the  chief  by  the  hand,  said  in  a  low  tone  of 
voice,  as  if  overcome  by  grief,  'My  friend,  what  is  all 
this?  Give  me  an  explanation.  You  do  not  love  the 
whites;  you  have  told  me  nothing  yet.'  Tam-a-tap-um 
then  turning  to  his  people,  beckoned  to  them  with  the 


84  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

hand  to  be  silent;  entire  silence  was  not  to  be  expected. 
He  then  went  over  the  whole  affair  from  beginning  to 
end.  When  the  chief  ended,  and  the  people  were  in  a 
listening  mood,  I  sympathized  with  their  misfortunes, 
and  observed  that  the  whites  had  been  undeservedly 
blamed.  'They  are  innocent,'  said  I,  'and  that  I  can 
prove.  Look  at  that,'  said  I,  pointing  to  an  arrow 
wound,  which  no  one  could  mistake,  'the  wounds  are 
those  of  arrows,  not  balls.  Nor  were  the  Snakes 
themselves  so  much  to  blame;  as  we  shall  be  able 
to  show.' 

"At  these  assertions  the  chief  looked  angry,  and 
there  was  a  buzz  of  disapprobation,  among  the  crowd; 
but  I  told  the  chief  to  listen  patiently  until  I  had  done. 
The  chief  then  composed  himself,  and  I  proceeded. 
'After  your  solemn  acquiescence  in  a  peace  between 
yourselves  and  the  Snakes,  through  the  influence  of 
the  whites,  the  Shaw-ha-ap-tens  violated  the  second 
pledge  by  going  again  to  war,  across  the  Blue  Moun- 
tains; and  not  content  with  having  killed  their  enemies, 
they  killed  their  friends  also.  They  killed  two  of  the 
whites.  The  Snakes  in  the  act  of  retahation  have  there- 
fore made  you  all  to  mourn  this  day;  they  have  made 
the  whites  to  mourn  also.  But  your  loss  is  less  than 
ours;  your  relations  have  been  killed;  but  still  you 
have  their  bodies:  that  consolation  is  denied  us.  Our 
friends  have  been  killed,  but  we  know  not  where  their 
bodies  he.'  These  facts  neither  the  chief  nor  the 
crowd  could  gainsay.     The  chief,  with  a  loud  voice, 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  85 

explained  what  I  had  said  to  the  Hstening  multitude; 
when  they  with  one  voice  exclaimed,  'It  is  true,  it  is 
true!'  Leaving  the  chief,  I  then  entered  the  fort,  and 
taking  some  red  cloth,  laid  six  inches  of  it  on  each  body, 
as  a  token  of  sympathy;  then  I  told  them  to  go  and 
bury  their  dead.  A  loud  fit  of  lamentation  closed  the 
scene.  The  bodies  were  then  taken  up,  and  the  crowd 
moved  off,  in  a  quiet  and  orderly  manner. 

"But  the  satisfaction  we  enjoyed  at  the  departure 
of  the  savages  was  of  short  duration,  for  they  were 
scarcely  out  of  sight,  and  I  scarcely  inside  the  door, 
when  another  band,  related  to  those  who  had  been 
killed,  arrived  at  the  fort  gate,  and  the  loud  and  clam- 
orous scene  of  mourning  was  again  renewed. 

"Among  this  second  crowd  of  visitors  was  a  fellow 
dignified  by  the  name  of  Prince,  and  brother  to  one  of 
the  young  women  who  had  been  carried  off  by  the 
Snakes.  Prince  encamped  within  fifty  yards  of  the 
fort,  and  his  tent  was  no  sooner  pitched  than  he  began 
to  chant  the  song  of  death.  When  an  Indian  resorts 
to  this  mode  of  mourning,  it  is  a  sure  sign  that,  'he  has 
thrown  his  body  away,'  as  the  Indians  term  it,  and 
meditates  self-destruction.  Being  told  of  Prince's 
resolution,  I  went  to  his  tent  to  see  him,  and  found  him 
standing,  with  his  breast  leaning  upon  the  muzzle  of 
his  gun;  his  hair  was  dishevelled,  and  he  was  singing 
with  great  vehemence:  he  never  raised  his  head  to  see 
who  I  was.  I  knew  all  was  not  right,  and  spoke  to 
him;  but  receiving  no  answer,  I  went  away,  on  my  re- 


86  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

turn  to  the  fort.  I  had  scarcely  advanced  twenty 
yards  from  his  tent,  before  I  heard  the  report  of  a  gun 
behind  me,  and  turning  back  again,  I  found  the  unfort- 
unate fellow  lying  on  the  ground  weltering  in  his 
blood,  his  gun  partly  under  him.  He  was  still  breath- 
ing. The  ball  had  entered  his  left  breast,  below  the 
nipple,  and  came  out  near  the  backbone.  The  wound 
was  bleeding  freely,  and  he  disgorged  great  quantities 
of  blood.  I  went  to  the  fort  for  some  assistance,  but 
on  our  return  I  expected  that  every  moment  would 
have  been  his  last;  however  we  dressed  his  wound,  and 
did  what  we  could  to  allay  his  suffering. 

"The  Indians  now  assembled  in  great  numbers,  and 
were  noisy  and  violent.  In  the  first  instance,  they 
threw  all  the  blame  of  the  unfortunate  affair  on  the 
whites;  but  in  their  rage  and  violence,  they  quarrelled 
among  themselves,  and  this  new  direction  in  their 
excitement  removed  the  odium  in  some  degree  from  the 
whites,  and  diverted  the  tide  of  popular  fury  into  an- 
other channel.  During  the  affair,  one  of  those  unfort- 
unate wretches  called  medicine-men  happened  to  be 
sitting  at  the  fort  gate,  when  a  brother  of  the  man 
who  had  just  shot  himself  went  up  to  him,  saying, 
*You  dog!  you  have  thrown  your  bad  medicine  on 
my  brother,  and  he  is  dead;  but  you  shall  not  live,' 
and  in  saying  so,  he  shot  him  dead  on  the  spot.  The 
ball,  after  passing  through  the  man's  body,  went  more 
than  three  inches  into  one  of  the  fort  palisades.  I  was 
standing  on  the  gallery  at  the  moment  he  was  shot, 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  87 

and  had  it  been  on  any  other  occasion  but  in  the  midst 
of  a  quarrel  between  the  Indians,  we  certainly  should 
have  avenged  his  death  on  the  spot;  for  the  murdered 
man  was  an  excellent  Indian,  and  a  sincere  friend  of 
the  whites. 

"The  scene  now  assumed  a  threatening  aspect. 
Guns,  bows,  arrows,  and  every  missile  that  could  be 
laid  hold  of,  came  into  requisition;  and  robes,  feathers, 
bells,  belts,  and  trinkets  of  every  description,  were 
ratthng  about  in  true  savage  style.  The  fellow  who 
had  just  shot  the  medicine-man  was  shot  in  his  turn, 
and  before  the  chiefs  arrived,  or  could  get  a  hearing, 
three  others  were  shot.  The  place  appeared  more  Hke 
a  field  of  battle  than  anything  else;  for  besides  the  five 
bodies  that  lay  hfeless  on  the  ground,  twice  that  num- 
ber were  desperately  wounded. 

"As  soon  as  the  deadly  quarrel  began,  not  knowing 
the  intent  of  the  Indians,  nor  how  it  might  end,  I 
shut  the  gates,  and  kept  as  clear  of  the  quarrel  as  pos- 
sible. In  the  midst  of  the  confusion,  the  Indians 
poured  in  from  all  quarters,  adding  fuel  to  the  flame; 
and  some  of  them  in  approaching  the  place,  thinking 
it  was  a  quarrel  between  the  whites  and  themselves, 
fired  a  shot  or  two  at  the  fort  before  they  were  aware 
of  the  mistake.  This  made  us  take  to  our  bastions: 
our  matches  were  lighted,  guns  pointed,  and  we  our- 
selves watched  the  maneuvres  of  the  savages  around 
us.  One  unguarded  shot  would  have  involved  us  in 
the  quarrel,  which  it  was  our  interest  to  avoid;  as  it 


Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 


would  have  put  an  end  to  all  our  prospects  in  the  Snake 
as  well  as  the  Nez  Perces  quarter. 

"As  soon  as  the  chiefs  could  get  a  hearing,  peace 
was  generally  restored;  and  the  five  dead  bodies  were 
removed  to  the  Indian  camp,  at  a  distance  from  the 
fort.  Such  a  scene  I  should  never  wish  to  witness 
again.  This  affray,  happening  at  our  very  door,  gave 
us  much  uneasiness;  as  to  keep  the  balance  of  good  will 
at  all  times  in  our  favour  was  a  task  of  more  than  or- 
dinary difficulty." 

The  next  day  more  Indians  came  in,  and  soon  several 
tribes  were  represented.  The  whites  were  indirectly 
taxed  with  all  the  troubles,  and  there  was  a  vast  deal 
of  speech-making  and  many  threats.  At  last,  how- 
ever, after  a  week  of  counselUng,  the  matter  quieted 
down,  the  diff"erent  tribes  all  smoked  together,  and 
peace  was  made — to  last  for  a  time. 

Ross  has  much  to  say  about  the  different  tribes  of 
Shoshoni  stock  and  their  relations  to  each  other.  He 
was  long  with  them  and  studied  them  carefully. 

The  Ban-at-tees,  which  we  call  Bannocks,  seem  to 
have  been  held  by  the  Snake  tribes  to  the  south  and 
west  as  chargeable  with  most  of  the  disturbances  be- 
tween the  whites  and  the  Snakes,  and  after  a  time  it 
developed  that  the  Indians  that  murdered  Mr.  Reid 
and  his  party  in  the  autumn  of  1813  were  Bannocks. 

During  the  winter  a  hunter  named  Hodgens  became 
separated  from  his  party  during  a  violent  snow-storm 
and   lost  his  way.     A  little  later,  in  the  same  way. 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  89 

he  lost  his  horse;  his  gun  became  broken  so  that  he 
could  not  make  a  fire,  and  during  two  days  and  two 
nights  he  was  obliged  to  lie  out  without  fire. 

**0n  the  fourteenth  day,  however,  while  scarcely 
able  to  crawl,  he  had  the  good  luck  to  fall  on  the  main 
camp  of  the  War-are-ree-kas;  where  recognizing  the 
chief's  tent,  from  the  manner  in  which  it  was  painted, 
he  advanced  towards  it,  looking  more  hke  a  ghost  than 
a  living  being.  On  his  entering,  Ama-ketsa,  surprised 
at  his  unexpected  arrival,  and  still  more  surprised  at 
his  emaciated  appearance,  stared  him  in  the  face  for 
some  time,  and  could  scarcely  believe  that  it  was  a 
white  man;  but  as  soon  as  he  was  convinced  of  the 
reality,  and  made  acquainted  with  the  wanderer's  for- 
lorn state,  he  ordered  one  of  his  wives  to  put  a  new 
pair  of  shoes  on  his  feet,  gave  him  something  to  eat, 
and  was  extremely  kind  to  him.  Here  Hodgens  re- 
mained for  eleven  days  in  the  chief's  tent,  nursed  with 
all  the  care  and  attention  of  a  child  of  the  family,  until 
his  strength  was  recovered;  and  as  soon  as  he  was  on 
his  legs  again,  Ama-ketsa  furnished  him  with  a  horse, 
some  provisions,  and  sent  one  of  his  own  sons  to  con- 
duct him  to  the  whites.  Although  Hodgens  could  give 
the  Indians  no  clue  as  to  where  the  hunters  were  en- 
camped, yet  on  the  eighth  day  they  arrived  safe  and 
sound  at  their  friends',  and  as  straight  as  if  they  had 
been  led  by  a  Hue  to  them;  which  convinced  our 
people  that  the  Indians  knew  well  the  place  of  their 
retreat.  .  .  . 


90  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

"A  party  of  our  people  had  been  out  a  whole  week 
in  search  of  Hodgens,  and  found  his  dead  horse,  but 
despairing  of  finding  him  they  returned  to  their  camp; 
and  all  hope  of  ever  finding  Hodgens  alive  vanished: 
when  he  did  come,  their  astonishment  was  equal  to 
their  delight.  The  friendly  conduct  of  Ama-ketsa 
towards  him  was  a  strong  proof  of  that  chief's  good- 
will towards  our  people.  During  our  friends'  stay  in 
this  place  they  had  several  surprises  from  the  Indians, 
but  they  managed  matters  so  well  that  no  more  of 
their  horses  were  stolen." 

There  is  distinct  reference  in  this  volume  to  the 
Yellowstone  National  Park,  which  may  very  well  have 
been  visited  by  Ross  or  some  of  his  trappers.  He 
speaks  of  "Pilot  Knobs" — the  Three  Tetons — salt 
and  sulphur  springs  and  of  boihng  fountains,  some  of 
them  so  hot  as  to  boil  meat.  These  allusions  do  not, 
of  course,  necessarily  refer  to  Yellowstone  Park,  for 
there  are  many  other  places  in  the  Rocky  Mountains 
where  such  things  are  found,  but  the  references  to  the 
Three  Tetons  and  to  the  source  of  the  Lewis  River 
are  suggestive  enough. 

Ross  speaks  also  of  various  foods  of  the  country; 
of  the  use  of  horse  flesh  and  dog  flesh  and  also  of  the 
Snake  tobacco,  which,  for  a  time  at  least,  the  Indians 
preferred  to  that  imported  by  the  whites.  He  credits 
the  Snake  Indians  with  extraordinary  skill  in  wood- 
craft, shown  especially  by  the  methods  they  employ 
to  avoid  possible  enemies. 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  91 

IV 

WITH  THE  HUDSON  BAY  COMPANY 

The  time  was  now  at  hand  when  the  Northwest 
Company  should  be  merged  into  the  Hudson  Bay  Com- 
pany. This  consoHdation  naturally  cast  a  gloom  over 
the  retainers  of  the  Northwest  Company  wherever 
they  were  situated.  The  people  who  had  been  em- 
ployed by  the  Northwest  Company  were  uncertain 
where  they  stood.  Those  who  had  been  promoted 
prior  to  the  "deed-poll" — March  26,  1821 — were  pro- 
vided for  by  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  whereas  all 
others  were  excluded  from  these  benefits.  Some  of 
them,  however,  received  pecuniary  compensation  for 
their  disappointment,  and  of  these  Ross  was  one,  or 
he  was  told  by  an  officer  of  the  company  that  five 
hundred  pounds  sterling  had  been  placed  to  his  credit, 
but  of  this  he  never  received  a  penny. 

Ross  now  entered  the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay 
Company.  He  had  been  for  a  short  time  with  the 
Pacific  Fur  Company;  had  spent  seven  years  with  the 
Northwest  Company  and,  except  for  his  experience, 
was  about  where  he  had  been  when  he  started. 

The  servants  of  the  Northwest  Company  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  depositing  their  savings  with  the  firm 
which  was  its  head,  and  a  few  years  after  the  consoli- 
dation of  the  two  companies  this  concern  failed  and 
all  these  savings  disappeared. 


92  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Toward  the  end  of  his  first  volume,  after  much  in- 
formation about  Indians,  half-breeds,  trading,  trap- 
pers, and  travel,  Ross  draws  an  interesting  picture  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  bourgeois — or  proprietary 
partner — ^journeys  through  the  fur  country,  and  the 
absolute  loyalty  to  him  and  to  the  company  felt  by 
the  voyageurs,  who  were,  indeed,  the  backbone  of  the 
northern  fur  trade.     He  says: 

"The  bourgeois  is  carried  on  board  his  canoe  upon 
the  back  of  some  sturdy  fellow  generally  appointed  for 
this  purpose.  He  seats  himself  on  a  convenient  mat- 
tress, somewhat  low  in  the  centre  of  his  canoe;  his  gun 
by  his  side,  his  little  cherubs  fondling  around  him,  and 
his  faithful  spaniel  lying  at  his  feet.  No  sooner  is  he 
at  his  ease,  than  his  pipe  is  presented  by  his  attendant, 
and  he  then  begins  smoking,  while  his  silken  banner 
undulates  over  the  stern  of  his  painted  vessel.  Then 
the  bending  paddles  are  plied,  and  the  fragile  craft 
speeds  through  the  currents  with  a  degree  of  fleetness 
not  to  be  surpassed; — yell  upon  yell  from  the  hearty 
crew  proclaiming  their  prowess  and  skill. 

"A  hundred  miles  performed,  night  arrives;  the 
hands  jump  out  quickly  into  the  water,  and  their  na- 
bob and  his  companions  are  supported  to  terra  firma. 
A  roaring  fire  is  kindled  and  supper  is  served;  his 
honour  then  retires  to  enjoy  his  repose.  At  dawn  of 
day  they  set  out  again;  the  men  now  and  then  relax 
their  arms,  and  light  their  pipes;  but  no  sooner  does 
the  headway  of  the  canoe  die  away,  than  they  renew 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  93 

their  labours  and  their  chorus:  a  particular  voice  being 
ever  selected  to  lead  the  song.  The  guide  conducts 
the  march. 

*'At  the  hour  of  breakfast  they  put  ashore  on  some 
green  plot.  The  tea-kettle  is  boiHng;  a  variegated  mat 
is  spread,  and  a  cold  collation  set  out.  Twenty  min- 
utes— and  they  start  anew.  The  dinner-hour  arrives, 
they  put  aground  again.  The  liquor-can  accompanies 
the  provision-basket;  the  contents  are  quickly  set  forth 
in  simple  style;  and,  after  a  refreshment  of  twenty 
minutes  more,  off  they  set  again,  until  the  twilight 
checks  their  progress. 

"When  it  is  practicable  to  make  way  In  the  dark, 
four  hours  is  the  voyageurs'  allowance  of  rest;  and  at 
times,  on  boisterous  lakes  and  bold  shores,  they  keep 
for  days  and  nights  together  on  the  water,  without 
intermission,  and  without  repose.  They  sing  to  keep 
time  to  their  paddles;  they  sing  to  keep  off  drowsiness, 
caused  by  their  fatigue;  and  they  sing  because  the 
bourgeois  likes  it. 

"Through  hardships  and  dangers,  wherever  he  leads, 
they  are  sure  to  follow  with  alacrity  and  cheerfulness — 
over  mountains  and  hills,  along  valleys  and  dales, 
through  woods  and  creeks,  across  lakes  and  rivers. 
They  look  not  to  the  right,  nor  to  the  left;  they  make 
no  halt  in  foul  or  fair  weather.  Such  is  their  skill,  that 
they  venture  to  sail  in  the  midst  of  waters  like  oceans, 
and,  with  amazing  aptitude,  they  shoot  down  the  most 
frightful  rapids;  and  they  generally  come  off  safely. 


94  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

"When  about  to  arrive  at  the  place  of  their  destina- 
tion, they  dress  with  neatness,  put  on  their  plumes,  and 
a  chosen  song  is  raised.  They  push  up  against  the 
beach,  as  if  they  meant  to  dash  the  canoe  into  splin- 
ters; but  most  adroitly  back  their  paddles  at  the  right 
moment;  whilst  the  foreman  springs  on  shore,  and, 
seizing  the  prow,  arrests  the  vessel  in  its  course.  On 
this  joyful  occasion,  every  person  advances  to  the 
waterside,  and  great  guns  are  fired  to  announce  the 
bourgeois'  arrival.  A  general  shaking  of  hands  takes 
place,  as  it  often  happens  that  people  have  not  met  for 
years:  even  the  bourgeois  goes  through  this  mode  of 
salutation  with  the  meanest.  There  is,  perhaps,  no 
country  where  the  ties  of  affection  are  more  binding 
than  here.  Each  addresses  his  comrades  as  his  broth- 
ers; and  all  address  themselves  to  the  bourgeois  with 
reverence,  as  if  he  were  their  father." 

About  this  time,  Mr.  McKenzie  retired  from  the 
fur  trade  and  went  to  hve  in  northern  New  York. 
This  left  without  occupation  a  number  of  hunters  and 
trappers  in  the  country,  where  Ross  was  stationed,  and 
Ross  made  up  his  mind  to  leave  the  country  and  aban- 
don the  business  which  he  had  so  long  followed.  He 
was  still  merely  a  clerk  in  the  service  of  the  great  com- 
pany. Finan  McDonald,  a  Northwest  veteran,  now  in 
the  service  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  was  to  be  in 
charge  of  the  people  in  the  Snake  country,  and  a  little 
later  John  Warren  Dease,  a  chief  trader  in  the  new 
company,  reached  Fort  Nez  Perces  and  told  Ross  that 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  95 

he  had  been  named  to  take  charge  of  the  fort  and  the 
country  immediately  about  it,  while  Ross  was  to  suc- 
ceed McKenzie  in  charge  of  the  Snake  country. 

Nevertheless,  Ross  was  determined  to  go  back  to  the 
East  and  had  started  with  his  family,  but  on  his  way — 
when  he  reached  the  Rocky  Mountains — he  received  a 
letter  from  Governor  Simpson,  offering  him  the  man- 
agement of  the  Snake  country  for  three  years  at  a 
hberal  salary.  Ross  hesitated  to  accept,  but  finally 
did  so,  and  went  to  Spokane  House  to  make  up  his 
party.  McDonald  had  recently  come  in  there  and  with 
much  grumbhng;  for  he  had  had  trouble  with  the  Pie- 
gan  Blackfeet,  in  which  one  of  his  men  had  been  shot 
by  treachery,  and  in  a  pitched  battle  afterward  had  with 
the  same  party  he  lost  seven  more  of  his  men. 

The  account  of  this  battle  may  properly  be  inserted 
here: 

**One  day,  when  they  had  travelled  until  dark  in 
search  of  water,  they  found  some  at  the  bottom  of  a 
deep  and  rocky  ravine,  down  which  they  went  and  en- 
camped. They  had  seen  no  traces  of  enemies  during 
the  day,  and  being  tired,  they  all  went  to  sleep,  without 
keeping  watch.  In  the  morning,  however,  just  at  the 
dawn  of  day,  they  were  saluted  from  the  top  of  the 
ravine  before  they  got  up,  with  a  volley  of  balls  about 
their  ears;  without,  however,  any  being  killed  or 
wounded:  one  of  them  had  the  stock  of  his  gun  pierced 
through  with  a  ball,  and  another  of  them  his  powder- 
horn  shivered  to  pieces;  but  this  was  all  the  injury  they 


g6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

sustained  from  the  enemy's  discharge.  The  alarm  was 
instantly  given,  all  hands  in  confusion  sprang  up  and 
went  out  to  see  what  was  the  matter;  some  with  one 
shoe  on  and  the  other  off,  others  naked,  with  a  gun  in 
one  hand  and  their  clothes  in  the  other.  When  they 
perceived  the  Indians  on  the  top  of  the  rocks,  yelling 
and  flourishing  their  arms,  the  whites  gave  a  loud 
huzza,  and  all  hands  were  collected  together  in  an 
instant;  but  the  Indians  instead  of  taking  advantage 
of  their  position,  wheeled  about  and  marched  off  with- 
out firing  another  shot. 

''McDonald,  at  the  head  of  thirty  men,  set  out  to 
pursue  them;  but  finding  the  ravine  too  steep  and  rocky 
to  ascend,  they  were  apprehensive  that  the  sudden  dis- 
appearance of  the  Indians  was  a  stratagem  to  entrap 
them,  when  they  might  have  been  popped  off  by  the 
enemy  from  behind  stones  and  trees,  without  having 
an  opportunity  of  defending  themselves.  Acting  on 
this  opinion,  they  returned,  and  taking  a  supply  of 
powder  and  ball  with  them,  they  mounted  their  horses, 
to  the  number  of  forty-five,  and  then  pursued  the 
enemy,  leaving  twenty  men  behind  to  guard  the  camp. 
When  our  people  got  to  the  head  of  the  ravine,  the 
Indians  were  about  a  mile  off,  and  all  on  foot,  having 
no  horses,  with  the  exception  of  five  for  carrying  their 
luggage;  and  our  people,  before  they  could  get  up 
with  them,  had  to  pass  another  ravine  still  deeper  and 
broader  than  the  one  they  were  encamped  in,  so  that 
before  they  got  down  on  one  side  of  it  the  enemy  had 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  97 

got  up  on  the  other  side.  And  here  again  the  Indians 
did  not  avail  themselves  of  their  advantage,  but  al- 
lowed our  people  to  follow  without  firing  a  shot  at 
them,  as  if  encouraging  them  on;  and  so  bold  and  con- 
fident were  they,  that  many  of  them  bent  themselves 
down  in  a  posture  of  contempt,  by  way  of  bidding 
them  defiance. 

"As  soon  as  our  people  had  got  over  the  second 
ravine,  they  took  a  sweep,  wheeled  about,  and  met  the 
Indians  in  the  teeth;  then  dismounting,  the  battle 
began,  without  a  word  being  spoken  on  either  side. 
As  soon  as  the  firing  commenced,  the  Indians  began 
their  frantic  gestures,  and  whooped  and  yelled  with  the 
view  of  intimidating;  they  fought  Hke  demons,  one 
fellow  all  the  time  waving  a  scalp  on  the  end  of  a  pole : 
nor  did  they  yield  an  inch  of  ground  till  more  than 
twenty  of  them  lay  dead;  at  last,  they  threw  down 
their  guns,  and  held  up  their  hands  as  a  signal  of  peace. 
By  this  time  our  people  had  lost  three  men,  and  not 
thinking  they  had  yet  taken  ample  vengeance  for 
their  death,  they  made  a  rush  on  the  Indians,  killed 
the  fellow  who  held  the  pole,  and  carried  off  the  scalp 
and  the  five  horses.  The  Indians  then  made  a  simul- 
taneous dash  on  one  side,  and  got  into  a  small  coppice 
of  wood,  leaving  their  dead  on  the  spot  where  they  fell. 
Our  people  supposed  that  they  had  first  laid  down  their 
arms  and  next  taken  to  th^  bush  because  they  were 
short  of  ammunition,  as  many  of  the  shots  latterly 
were  but  mere  puffs.     Unfortunately  for  the  Indians, 


98  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

the  scalp  taken  proved  to  be  none  other  than  poor 
Anderson's,  and  this  double  proof  of  their  guilt  so 
enraged  our  people,  that  to  the  bush  they  followed 
them. 

''McDonald  sent  to  the  camp  for  buck-shot,  and 
then  poured  volleys  into  the  bush  among  them,  from 
the  distance  of  some  twenty  or  thirty  yards,  till  they 
had  expended  fifty-six  pounds  weight;  the  Indians  all 
this  time  only  firing  a  single  shot  now  and  then  when 
the  folly  and  imprudence  of  our  people  led  them  too 
near;  but  they  seldom  missed  their  mark,  and  here 
three  more  of  the  whites  fell.  At  this  part  of  the 
conflict,  two  of  our  own  people,  an  Iroquois  and  a 
Canadian,  got  into  a  high  dispute  which  was  the  bravest 
man;  when  the  former  challenged  the  latter  to  go  with 
him  into  the  bush  and  scalp  a  Piegan.  The  Canadian 
accepted  the  challenge;  taking  each  other  by  one  hand, 
with  a  scalping  knife  in  the  other,  savage  like,  they 
entered  the  bush,  and  advanced  until  they  were  within 
four  or  five  feet  of  a  Piegan,  when  the  Iroquois  said,  *I 
will  scalp  this  one,  you  go  and  scalp  another;'  but  just 
as  the  Iroquois  was  in  the  act  of  stretching  out  his  hand 
to  lay  hold  of  his  victim  the  Piegan  shot  him  through 
the  head,  and  so  bespattered  the  Canadian  with  his 
brains  that  he  was  almost  blind;  the  latter,  however, 
got  back  again  to  his  comrades,  but  deferred  taking  the 
scalp. 

"M'Donald  and  his  men  being  fatigued  with  firing, 
thought  of  another  and  more  effectual  plan  of  destroy- 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  99 

ing  the  Piegans.  It  blew  a  strong  gale  of  wind  at  the 
time,  so  they  set  fire  to  the  bush  of  dry  and  decayed 
wood;  it  burnt  with  the  rapidity  of  straw,  and  the 
devouring  element  laid  the  whole  bush  in  ashes  in  a 
very  short  time.  When  it  was  first  proposed,  the  ques- 
tion arose  who  should  go  and  fire  the  bush,  at  the  muz- 
zle of  the  Piegans'  guns.  'The  oldest  man  in  the 
camp,'  said  M'Donald;  *and  Fll  guard  him.'  The  lot 
fell  upon  Bastony,  a  superannuated  hunter  on  the 
wrong  side  of  seventy;  the  poor  and  wrinkled  old  man 
took  the  torch  in  his  hand  and  advanced,  trembHng 
every  step  with  the  fear  of  instant  death  before  him; 
while  M'Donald  and  some  others  walked  at  his  heels 
with  their  guns  cocked.  The  bush  was  fired,  the  party 
returned,  and  volleys  of  buck-shot  were  again  poured 
into  the  bush  to  aid  the  fire  in  the  work  of  destruction. 
"About  one  hundred  yards  from  the  burning  bush, 
was  another  much  larger  bush,  and  while  the  fire  was 
consuming  the  one,  our  people  advanced  and  stationed 
themselves  at  the  end  of  the  other,  to  intercept  any  of 
the  Piegans  who  might  attempt  the  doubtful  alter- 
native of  saving  themselves  by  taking  refuge  in  it.  To 
ensure  success,  our  people  left  open  the  passage  from 
the  one  bush  to  the  other,  while  they  themselves  stood 
in  two  rows,  one  upon  each  side,  with  their  guns  cocked; 
suddenly  the  half-roasted  Piegans,  after  uttering  a 
scream  of  despair,  burst  through  the  flames  and  made  a 
last  and  expiring  effort  to  gain  the  other  bush;  then 
our  people  poured  in  upon  each  side  of  them  a  fatal 


loo  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

volley  of  ball  and  buck-shot,  which  almost  finished 
what  the  flames  had  spared.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all 
these  sanguinary  precautions,  a  remnant  escaped  by 
getting  into  the  bush.  The  wounded  victims  who 
fell  under  the  last  volley,  the  Iroquois  dealt  with  in  their 
own  way — with  the  knife. 

"After  the  massacre  was  ended,  our  people  col- 
lected their  dead  and  returned  to  the  camp  at  sunset; 
not  we  should  suppose  to  rejoice,  but  rather  to  mourn. 
We  afterwards  learned  that  only  seven  out  of  the 
seventy-five  which  formed  the  party  of  the  unfortunate 
Piegans,  returned  home  to  relate  the  mournful  tale. 
Although  our  people  were  drawn  into  this  unfortunate 
affair  with  justice  on  their  side,  yet  they  persevered  in 
it  with  folly  and  ended  it  with  cruelty:  no  wonder,  then, 
if  they  afterwards  paid  for  their  cruelty  with  their 
own  blood." 

After  a  short  stay  at  Spokane  House,  Ross,  who  had 
been  given — on  paper — a  force  of  eighty  men,  was  able 
to  get  together  only  forty,  a  number  of  whom  were 
quite  unsatisfactory.  At  the  Flathead  River  post,  at 
the  foot  of  the  mountains,  he  picked  up  fourteen  more, 
making  the  whole  party  fifty-five.  It  was  a  curious 
mixture  of  Americans,  Canadian  Frenchmen,  half- 
breeds,  Iroquois,  natives  of  eastern  Canada,  Saulteaux, 
Crees,  Spokanes,  Kutenais,  Flatheads,  KaHspels,  Pa- 
louse,  and  one  Snake.  Of  the  Canadians,  five  were 
more  than  sixty  3^ears  of  age,  and  two  more  than 
seventy.     The   Iroquois  were   good   hunters,  but   un- 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  loi 

trustworthy,  while  the  local  Indians  were  useful  chiefly 
in  looking  after  the  horses.  Twenty-five  of  the  people 
were  married,  so  that  in  the  company  there  were 
twenty-five  women  and  sixty-four  children.  They 
carried  with  them  a  brass  three-pounder  cannon,  more 
than  two  hundred  beaver-traps,  and  about  four  hundred 
horses.  It  is  understood,  of  course,  that  they  carried 
no  provisions,  depending  wholly  on  their  guns  for  food, 
and  Ross  complains  that  on  the  day  of  starting  they 
had  killed  but  one  deer,  a  slender  repast  for  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty-seven  hungry  mouths. 

Trouble  with  the  Iroquois  began  almost  at  once. 
Having  received  their  advances,  they  thought  Httle 
about  the  debts  that  they  owed  for  guns,  horses,  traps, 
clothing,  and  ammunition. 

At  a  defile  in  Hell's  Gate,  where  the  Piegans  and  Black- 
feet  used  to  cross  the  mountains  on  their  war  journeys, 
they  camped  for  some  little  time,  and  here  the  hunters, 
to  their  great  satisfaction,  killed  four  wild  horses,  be- 
sides twenty-seven  elk  and  thirty-two  small  deer.  The 
capture  of  the  horses  was  a  great  triumph  for  the  hunt- 
ers, who  were  more  delighted  with  their  success  in  this 
little  adventure  than  if  they  had  killed  a  hundred 
buffalo. 

Not  long  after  this,  two  Iroquois  deserted  and  turned 
back,  and  the  leader,  having  previously  lost  another 
Iroquois  by  desertion,  felt  that  this  must  be  stopped. 
He  therefore  followed  the  deserters  about  sixteen 
miles  back  on  the  trail  and  captured  them,  but  they 


I02  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

refused  to  return,  and  it  was  necessary  to  threaten  to 
tie  one  of  them  to  a  horse's  tail  before  he  would  con- 
sent to  go. 

They  were  frequently  meeting  Indians;  Piegans  first 
and  then  Nez  Perces,  and  whenever  strangers  were  met 
with,  the  Iroquois  traded  oflp  their  property,  even  to 
their  guns,  receiving  in  return  what  Ross  calls  "trash." 

The  weather  was  now  growing  cold,  partly,  perhaps, 
because  they  were  climbing  all  the  time.  Beaver  were 
plenty  and  elk,  deer,  and  mountain  goats  extremely 
abundant.  They  were  now  getting  close  to  the  head 
of  the  Flathead  River  and  were  fronting  great  moun- 
tains, largely  snow-covered.  Six  men  were  sent  out  to 
try  to  find  a  way  through  the  mountains,  and  at  length 
returned  reporting  that  it  was  quite  impracticable  to 
cross  the  mountains  here,  because  after  reaching  the 
plateau  above  the  timber  the  snow  was  five  or  six  feet 
deep  for  about  twelve  long  miles.  Beyond  the  moun- 
tains, however,  they  said,  was  a  large  open  plain  where 
the  snow  was  scarcely  a  foot  deep.  These  scouts  had 
killed  buffalo  and  brought  in  backloads  of  it.  To  travel 
with  horses  for  a  dozen  miles,  through  snow  five  or  six 
feet  deep  and  crusted,  was  quite  impossible,  and  Ross 
was  bitterly  discouraged.  Nevertheless,  he  deter- 
mined that  this  was  the  best  way  to  cross  the  moun- 
tains, and  sent  the  men  back  to  camp,  with  instructions 
to  greatly  modify  their  story  for  the  ears  of  the  people. 
The  outcome  of  it  was  that,  after  much  counseUing  and 
more  or  less  quarrelling,  the  party  started  to  break  a 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  103 

way  through  this  snow-covered  plateau.  It  proved 
much  more  difficult  than  even  Ross  had  supposed, 
but  by  working  with  horses  and  men  and  using  wooden 
mallets  to  break  the  crust,  and  shovels  to  cut  the  way, 
they  at  length,  thirty-three  days  from  the  time  they 
reached  that  camp  and  after  twenty-one  days'  extraor- 
dinary labor,  got  through  the  snow  and  came  out  on 
the  other  side,  where  there  was  feed  for  the  horses  and 
game  for  the  men.  Now,  however,  they  were  in  the 
enemy's  country,  for  it  was  here  that  the  Blackfeet 
were  constantly  travelling  about,  and  just  beyond  here 
that  McDonald  had  lost  seven  of  his  men  the  year 
before. 

Just  after  they  came  down  out  of  the  mountains, 
they  crossed  the  trail  made  by  Lewis  and  Clark  up  the 
middle  fork  of  the  Missouri,  nearly  twenty  years  before. 

After  they  had  passed  beyond  the  snow,  they  found 
beaver  extraordinarily  abundant  in  certain  localities. 
At  one  place  they  took  ninety-five  beaver  in  a  single 
morning  and  sixty  more  during  the  same  day.  But, 
as  they  continued  to  go  down  the  mountains,  the 
beaver  became  more  scarce,  but  the  snow  was  less. 
The  young  grass  had  started,  and  buffalo  were  enor- 
mously abundant,  though  at  this  time  not  fat.  Black- 
feet  and  Piegan  war  roads  were  constantly  crossed, 
and  fresh  tracks  of  men  and  horses  often  seen.  These 
signs  made  Ross  more  and  more  vigilant,  and  pres- 
ently he  discovered  that  his  Iroquois  were  turning  out 
their  horses  to  wander  among  the  hills,  and  although 


I04  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

he  warned  them  against  repeating  this,  they  paid  Httle 
attention  to  the  warning.  Under  such  carelessness  it 
was  evident  that  any  war-party  discovering  the  trap- 
pers would  have  no  difficulty  in  running  off  the  ani- 
mals. These,  though  nominally  belonging  to  the  in- 
dividuals who  used  them,  had  been  obtained  on  credit 
from  the  company,  and  if  they  were  stolen,  the  loss 
would  be  the  company's.  Only  a  day  or  two  later, 
Martin,  an  Iroquois,  was  discovered  to  have  turned 
loose  six  horses,  whereupon  Ross  sent  out  for  the  horses, 
took  them  back  into  his  own  charge,  gave  Martin 
credit  for  the  horses,  and  proceeded  to  move  camp. 
Martin  and  his  family  remained  sitting  by  the  fire. 
However,  the  other  Iroquois  brought  them  along  on 
some  of  their  horses,  and  at  night  old  men  came  to 
Ross  to  intercede  with  him,  begging  him  to  give  back 
the  horses  to  Martin.  After  much  persuasion  he  did 
so,  and  the  example  was  not  forgotten  either  by  the 
Iroquois  or  by  others  of  the  trappers. 

The  party  proceeded  eastward  with  disappointing 
results,  for  they  found  few  beaver.  Before  long,  there- 
fore, they  turned  back,  and,  passing  over  the  divide 
between  the  Salmon  and  Goddin  Rivers,  Ross  sent  off 
eight  men  to  trap  it  downstream,  but  made  them  leave 
their  horses  behind,  in  order  that  they  might  more 
readily  conceal  themselves  from  the  enemy,  for  Piegan 
Blackfeet  were  thought  to  be  in  the  country.  Mean- 
time, the  main  party  went  off  to  John  Day's  Valley  to 
supply    themselves   with    buffalo    meat,    for    recently 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  105 

game  had  been  scarce  and  they  had  been  wasteful  of 
food  when  they  had  passed  through  a  country  of 
abundance. 

From  a  camp  in  Day's  Valley,  two  men  were  sent  to 
Goddin  River  to  bring  back  the  eight  who  had  been 
trapping  there,  and  these  messengers,  carelessly  ad- 
vancing toward  a  smoke,  which  they  took  to  be  the 
fire  of  their  own  people,  walked  into  the  camp  of  a 
Piegan  war-party.  Their  horses  were  captured,  but 
the  men  threw  themselves  into  the  undergrowth  and 
escaped  by  creeping  along  the  margin  of  the  river  under 
its  banks,  which  were  overgrown  with  bushes.  In  the 
middle  of  the  second  night,  they  reached  the  camp  in 
rags,  with  moccasins  wholly  worn  out.  A  party  of 
thirty-five  started  in  pursuit  of  the  Piegans.  They  did 
not  overtake  them,  but  found  the  eight  trappers  safe. 
They  had  slept  within  half  a  mile  of  the  Piegan  camp, 
neither  party  being  aware  of  the  presence  of  the  other. 

Passing  over  high,  rough  country,  and  pestered  by 
the  Iroquois,  who  spent  most  of  their  time  in  trying  to 
get  away  from  the  main  party,  they  reached  the 
Riviere  aux  Malades.  Ross  now  thought  it  best  to 
let  the  Iroquois  go  off  and  hunt  by  themselves,  but  not 
all  of  them  wished  to  go,  and  two  of  those  who  had 
given  most  trouble — Grey  and  Martin — preferred  to 
remain  with  the  main  party.  On  the  Malades  River, 
there  were  good  signs  of  beaver,  and  in  one  place  they 
counted  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  poplar  trees  cut 
down  by  that  animal,  in  a  space  less  than  one  hundred 


io6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

yards  square.  The  first  night  they  got  fifty-two 
beaver,  but  were  troubled  by  the  rising  and  the  falling 
of  the  water,  caused,  of  course,  by  the  melting  of  the 
snows  on  the  mountains. 

One  afternoon  a  Piegan  war-party,  discovered  ap- 
proaching the  camp,  caused  the  greatest  excitement. 
They  did  not  attack,  and  presently  Ross  went  out  to 
meet  them,  gave  them  some  tobacco,  and  told  them 
to  remain  where  they  were.  There  were  ninety-two 
Indians,  and  after  a  time  Ross  invited  them  to  the 
camp,  where  they  passed  the  night  in  smoking,  dancing, 
and  singing.  Ross  secured  the  Piegan  arms,  ordered 
forty  of  their  horses  hobbled  and  put  in  with  the  traders' 
horses,  and  thus  provided  against  any  hostile  action. 
These  Piegans  claimed  to  be  on  a  peace  mission  to 
the  Shoshoni,  and  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  horses 
taken  from  the  two  trappers  only  a  few  days  before. 
Ross  beUeved  that  they  felt  themselves  too  few  to  at- 
tack his  party  and  planning  to  give  them  a  fright,  he 
seized  two  of  their  horses  and  four  of  their  guns,  to 
repay  the  loss  of  the  horses  and  traps  on  Goddin  River. 
The  Piegans  were  humble  and  apologetic  and  denied 
everything,  and  finally  Ross  returned  their  property 
and  gave  them  a  httle  tobacco  and  ammunition. 
They  went  off  in  separate  parties,  but  before  they  dis- 
appeared in  the  mountains  all  gathered  together  again. 

A  little  later  another  Piegan  war-party  came  to  the 
camp  in  Ross's  absence;  but  he  returned  before  they 
had  entered  the  camp.     There  were  one  hundred  and 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  107 

ten  of  these,  but  they  were  badly  armed,  having  only 
twenty-three  guns  and  Httle  or  no  ammunition.  They 
professed  to  be  friendly,  and  declared  that  they  were 
not  trying  to  take  the  property  of  the  whites;  for  two 
nights  before  they  had  come  into  the  camp  and  gone 
about  among  the  horses,  and  had  left  evidences  of 
their  presence  by  moving  a  piece  of  meat  which  was 
roasting  at  the  fire,  and  by  rubbing  two  spots  of  red 
paint  on  a  riding  saddle  at  one  of  the  tent  doors. 
The  chief  who  talked  with  Ross  seemed  so  honest  and 
frank  that  he  was  given  some  ammunition,  tobacco, 
and  a  knife,  and  the  two  parties  separated  in  a  very 
friendly  manner.  Only  a  little  later,  they  came  across 
a  Snake  camp,  to  which  also  had  come  a  number  of 
Cayuse  chiefs,  and  here  were  held  ceremonial  smokes 
and  speeches,  of  a  most  friendly  character. 

Dropping  down  Reid's  River  and  trapping  con- 
stantly, the  party  at  last  reached  another  great  Snake 
camp.  By  this  time  they  had  1,855  beaver.  In  this 
neighborhood  there  was  more  or  less  trouble.  The 
Indians  practised  all  sorts  of  stratagems  to  secure  the 
horses  of  the  trappers,  and  did  succeed  in  getting  ten 
of  them,  eight  of  which  were  later  returned.  The  na- 
tives also  took  a  number  of  traps.  Moreover,  as  they 
were  not  punished  for  what  they  did,  their  boldness 
grew,  and  at  last  an  Indian  picked  up  a  bundle  and 
when  it  was  taken  from  him  by  force,  he  strung  his 
bow  and  threatened  to  shoot  the  man.  Ross  gave  his 
people  much  good  advice,  and  pointed  out  that  if  they 


io8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

would  stick  together  they  were  perfectly  able  to  cow 
the  Snakes;  but  they  must  act  together.  His  plan 
was  to  capture  and  hold  ten  of  the  Indians'  horses  as 
security  for  property  that  had  been  taken.  They  went 
out  and  caught  the  horses,  and  when  they  returned 
with  them  to  the  camp,  finding  two  Indians  there, 
they  counted  out  one  hundred  bullets,  and  loaded  their 
cannon,  letting  the  Indians  see  what  was  being  done, 
and  sent  a  message  to  the  camp  that  as  soon  as  the 
stolen  traps  had  been  delivered,  they  would  give  up 
the  horses. 

"When  the  two  Indians  had  returned  with  the  mes- 
sage to  their  camp,  I  instructed  my  people  to  have  their 
arms  in  readiness,  in  such  a  position  that  each  man  could 
have  his  eye  upon  his  gun,  and  could  lay  hold  of  it  at 
a  moment's  warning;  but  to  appear  as  careless  as  if 
nothing  was  expected.  That  if  the  Indians  did  come, 
as  they  certainly  would,  to  claim  their  horses,  and  in- 
sisted on  taking  them,  I  would  reason  the  matter  with 
them;  and  when  that  failed,  I  would  give  the  most  for- 
ward of  them  a  blow  with  my  pipe  stem,  which  was 
to  be  the  signal  for  my  people  to  act.  The  moment, 
therefore,  the  signal  was  given,  the  men  were  to  shout 
according  to  Indian  custom,  seize,  and  make  a  demon- 
stration with  their  arms;  but  were  not  to  fire,  until  I 
had  first  set  the  example.  During  this  time  there 
was  a  great  stir  in  the  Indian  camp;  people  were  ob- 
served running  to  and  fro,  and  we  awaited  the  result 
with  anxiety. 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  109 

"Not  long  after,  we  saw  a  procession  of  some  fifty 
or  sixty  persons,  all  on  foot  and  unarmed,  advancing 
in  a  very  orderly  manner  towards  our  camp;  in  front 
of  which  was  placed  our  big  gun,  well  loaded,  pointed, 
and  the  match  lit.  My  men  were  in  the  rear,  whistling, 
singing,  and  apparently  indifferent.  On  the  Indians 
coming  up  to  me  and  another  man,  who  stood  in  front 
to  receive  them  near  to  where  the  horses  were  tied,  I 
drew  a  line  of  privilege,  and  made  signs  for  them  not 
to  pass  it.  They,  however,  looked  very  angry,  and 
observed  the  Hue  with  reluctance,  so  that  I  had  to 
beckon  to  them  several  times  before  I  was  obeyed,  or 
could  make  them  understand.  At  last  they  made  a 
sort  of  irregular  halt. 

"I  then  made  signs  for  the  Indians  to  sit  down;  but 
they  shook  their  heads.  I  asked  where  was  Ama- 
ketsa;  but  got  no  satisfactory  reply.  One  of  the  fel- 
lows immediately  introduced  the  subject  of  the  horses, 
in  very  fierce  and  insolent  language;  I  however,  to 
pacify  him,  and  make  friends,  spoke  kindly  to  them, 
and  began  to  reason  the  matter,  and  explain  it  to  them 
as  well  as  I  could;  but  the  fellow  already  noticed,  being 
more  forward  and  daring  than  the  rest,  sneered  at  my 
argument,  and  at  once  laid  hold  of  one  of  the  horses 
by  the  halter,  and  endeavoured  to  take  it  away  with- 
out further  ceremony.  I  laid  hold  of  the  halter,  in 
order  to  prevent  him,  and  the  fellow  every  now  and 
then  gave  a  tug  to  get  the  halter  out  of  my  hand;  the 
others  kept  urging  him  on,  and  they  were  the  more 


no  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

encouraged,  seeing  my  people  did  not  interfere;  the 
latter  were,  however,  on  the  alert,  waiting  impatiently 
for  the  signal,  without  the  Indians  being  in  the  least 
aware  of  it.  Beginning  to  get  a  little  out  of  humour, 
I  made  signs  to  the  Indian,  that  if  he  did  not  let  go, 
I  would  knock  him  down;  but,  prompted  no  doubt  by 
the  strong  party  that  backed  him,  and  seeing  no  one 
with  me,  he  disregarded  my  threat  by  giving  another 
tug  at  the  halter.  I  then  struck  him  smartly  on  the 
side  of  the  head  with  my  pipe  stem,  and  sent  him  reel- 
ing back  among  his  companions;  upon  which  my  men 
sprang  up,  seized  their  arms,  and  gave  a  loud  shout! 
The  sudden  act,  with  the  terror  conveyed  by  the  cock- 
ing of  so  many  guns,  so  surprised  the  Indians  that  they 
lost  all  presence  of  mind;  throwing  their  robes,  gar- 
ments, and  all  from  them,  they  plunged  headlong  into 
the  river,  and  swam  with  the  current  till  out  of  dan- 
ger, every  now  and  then  popping  up  their  heads  and 
diving  again,  like  so  many  wild  fowl!  In  less  than  a 
minute's  time,  there  was  not  a  soul  of  the  embassy  to 
be  seen  about  our  camp!  Never  was  anything  more 
decisive. 

"It  may  be  satisfactory  to  the  reader  to  know  what 
kind  of  pipe  stem  it  was  that  one  could  strike  a  heavy 
blow  with.  The  pipe-bowls  generally  used,  both  bv 
Indians  and  Indian  traders,  are  made  of  stone,  and  are 
large  and  heavy;  the  stems  resemble  a  walking-stick 
more  than  anything  else,  and  they  are  generally  of 
ash,  and  from  two-and-a-half  to  three  feet  long. 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  in 

"We  had  intended  removing  camp  the  same  day; 
but  after  what  had  happened,  I  thought  it  better  to 
pass  another  day  where  we  were,  in  order  to  give  the 
Snakes  as  well  as  ourselves  an  opportunity  of  making 
up  matters.  Not  a  soul,  however,  came  near  us  all 
that  day  afterwards,  and  we  were  at  a  loss  to  find  out 
what  was  going  on  in  the  Snake  camp.  I  therefore  got 
about  twenty  of  my  men  mounted  on  horseback,  to 
take  a  turn  round,  in  order  to  observe  the  movements 
of  the  Indians,  but  they  having  brought  me  word  that 
the  women  were  all  employed  in  their  usual  duties,  I 
felt  satisfied. 

"During  the  following  day,  ten  persons  were  ob- 
served making  for  our  camp,  who,  on  arrival,  spread 
out  a  buffalo  robe,  on  which  was  laid  all  our  stolen 
traps!  some  whole,  some  broken  into  several  pieces, 
which  they  had  been  flattening  for  knives;  the  whole 
rendered  almost  useless  to  us.  Ama-ketsa,  who  had 
not  been  present  at  the  affray  of  the  preceding  day, 
accompanied  this  party,  and  made  a  long  and  appar- 
ently earnest  apology  for  the  loss  of  our  traps,  and  the 
misunderstanding  that  ensued;  but  he  did  not  forget 
to  exculpate  his  own  people  from  all  blame,  laying  the 
odium  of  the  whole  affair  on  the  Banatees.  We  knew 
the  contrary:  the  War-are-ree-kas  were  the  guilty 
parties,  and  perhaps  Ama-ketsa  himself  was  not  alto- 
gether innocent;  at  least,  some  of  his  people  said  so. 
We,  however,  accepted  the  apology,  and  the  traps,  as 
they  were;  and  delivering  up  all  the  horses,  treated  the 


112  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

chief  with  due  honours,  satisfied  that  the  business  ended 
so  well. 

"The  chief  had  no  sooner  returned  to  his  camp  with 
the  horses,  than  a  brisk  trade  was  opened;  the  Indians, 
men,  women,  and  children,  coming  to  us  with  as  much 
confidence  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  On  the  next 
morning,  while  we  were  preparing  to  start,  one  of  my 
men  fell  from  his  horse  and  broke  his  thigh;  we,  how- 
ever, got  it  so  set,  as  not  to  prevent  our  removal. 
Although  everything  wore  the  appearance  of  peace, 
yet  I  thought  it  necessary  to  take  precautions,  in  order 
to  avoid  any  trouble  with  the  natives  in  passing  their 
camp.  I  therefore  appointed  ten  men  mounted  on 
horseback  to  go  before,  the  camp  followed  in  order 
after,  while  myself  and  twenty  men  brought  up  the 
rear;  and  all  was  peace  and  good  order." 

After  a  wide  round  from  here  they  found  them- 
selves again  on  the  Malades  River,  where  thirty-seven 
of  the  people  were  poisoned,  apparently  by  beaver 
meat,  and  it  was  from  this  circumstance  that  the  river 
got  its  name.  Just  beyond  this,  they  captured  a 
Bannock,  by  whom  they  were  told  that  the  beavers 
with  the  white  flesh — supposedly  poisonous — were  al- 
ways roasted  by  the  Indians  and  never  boiled;  unless 
roasted  the  meat  was  bad. 

At  a  point  on  the  Bear  River  the  travelling  party 
observed  two  animals  apparently  playing  in  the  water, 
and  on  approaching  the  place  these  were  found  to  be 
black    bears,    one    of  which    was    shot.     They    found 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  113 

that  the  bears  were  apparently  hunting  a  beaver 
which  was  found  concealed  in  the  shoal  water,  and  the 
signs  seemed  to  indicate  that  this  was  a  hunting-place 
where  the  bears  often  came  to  kill  beaver. 

Returning  to  Canoe  Point,  they  rested  for  a  couple 
of  days.  Their  horses,  which,  of  course,  were  unshod, 
had  become  very  tender-footed,  and  they  provided 
moccasins — so  to  speak — for  no  less  than  twenty-seven 
head.  This,  of  course,  is  an  old  Indian  practice.  Not 
far  from  here  they  found  buffalo  in  great  numbers, 
and  began  to  kill  and  dry  meat,  and  just  here  Ross 
gives  interesting  testimony  with  regard  to  some  char- 
acteristics of  the  buffalo  which  is  worth  repeating  in 
these  days,  when  the  buffalo  are  no  longer  with  us: 

"While  on  the  subject  of  buffalo,  we  may  notice 
that  there  is  perhaps  not  an  animal  that  roams  in  this, 
or  in  the  wilds  of  any  other  country,  more  fierce  and 
formidable,  than  a  buffalo  bull  during  the  rutting  sea- 
son: neither  the  Polar  bear,  nor  the  Bengal  tiger,  sur- 
pass that  animal  in  ferocity.  When  not  mortally 
wounded,  buffalo  turn  upon  man  or  horse;  but  when 
mortally  wounded,  they  stand  fiercely  eyeing  their 
assailant,  until  life  ebbs  away. 

"As  we  were  travelling  one  day  among  a  herd,  we 
shot  at  a  bull  and  wounded  him  severely — so  much 
so,  that  he  could  neither  run  after  us,  nor  from  us; 
propping  himself  on  his  legs,  therefore,  he  stood  look- 
ing at  us  till  we  had  fired  ten  balls  through  his  body, 
now  and  then  giving  a  shake  of  the  head.     Although 


114  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

he  was  apparently  unable  to  stir,  yet  we  kept  at  a 
respectful  distance  from  him;  for  such  is  the  agihty  of 
body  and  quickness  of  eye,  and  so  hideous  are  the 
looks  of  buffalo,  that  we  dared  not  for  some  time  ap- 
proach him:  at  last,  one  more  bold  than  the  rest  went 
up  and  pushed  the  beast  over; — he  was  dead!  If  not 
brought  to  the  ground  by  the  first  or  second  shot,  let 
the  hunter  be  on  his  guard!  The  old  bulls,  when 
badly  wounded  and  unable  to  pursue  their  assailant, 
prop  themselves,  as  we  have  seen,  and  often  stand  in 
that  position  till  dead;  but  the  head  of  a  wounded 
bull,  while  in  an  upright  position,  is  invariably  turned 
to  his  pursuer;  so  if  the  hunter  be  in  doubt,  let  him 
change  his  position,  to  see  if  the  bull  changes  his  posi- 
tion also.  The  surest  mark  of  his  being  mortally 
wounded  and  unable  to  stir,  is,  when  he  cannot  turn 
his  head  round  to  his  pursuer;  in  that  case,  you  may 
safely  walk  up  and  throw  him  down. 

"The  wild  cow  calves  generally  at  one  period,  and 
that  period  later  by  a  month  than  our  tame  cattle;  then 
they  all,  as  if  with  one  accord,  withdraw  themselves 
from  the  mountains  and  rocks,  and  resort  in  large 
families  to  the  valleys,  where  there  is  open  ground, 
with  small  clumps  of  wood  affording  shelter  and  pres- 
ervation; as  there  they  can  see  the  approach  of  an 
enemy  from  afar.  The  cows  herd  together  in  the  cen- 
tre, and  the  bulls  graze  in  the  distance:  all  in  sight  of 
each  other. 

"The  calving  season  is  May,  when  the  heat  of  the 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  115 

sun  is  sufficiently  strong  for  the  preservation  of  their 
young  in  the  open  air;  during  which  time  the  herd  feeds 
round  and  round  the  place  as  if  to  defend  the  young 
calves  from  the  approach  of  an  enemy  or  from  wolves. 
The  resident  Indian  tribes  seldom  hunt  or  disturb  the 
buffalo  at  this  season,  or  before  the  first  of  July.  The 
Indians  often  assured  me,  that,  during  the  calving  sea- 
son, the  bulls  keep  guard;  and  have  been  frequently 
known  to  assemble  together,  in  order  to  keep  at  a  dis- 
tance any  wolves,  bears  or  other  enemies,  that  might 
attempt  to  approach  the  cows." 

A  party  sent  after  the  Iroquois,  who  had  gone  off 
to  trap  by  themselves,  returned  on  the  14th  of  Octo- 
ber, bringing  with  them  not  only  the  ten  Iroquois  but 
also  seven  American  trappers.  The  Iroquois  had  had 
their  usual  success.  They  had  no  beaver,  no  traps, 
were  naked  and  destitute  of  almost  everything,  and 
were  in  debt  to  the  American  trappers  for  having 
been  brought  to  the  Three  Tetons.  According  to 
their  story,  they  had  been  attacked  by  a  war-party 
and  robbed  of  nine  hundred  beaver,  all  their  steel 
traps,  and  twenty-seven  horses.  Ross  had  the  small 
satisfaction  of  saying  to  them,  "I  told  you  so,"  but 
this  did  not  bring  back  the  lost  property.  On  the 
other  hand,  other  stones  were  told  by  certain  of  the 
Iroquois,  which  suggested  that  perhaps  the  Iroquois 
had  sold  their  beaver  to  the  Americans. 

It  was  not  long  before  another  war-party  made  its 
appearance,  causing  the  usual  excitement  and  alarm. 


ii6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

but  these  proved  to  be  Nez  Perces  who  had  started  for 
the  Blackfeet  to  steal  horses.  Before  they  got  there, 
the  Blackfeet  discovered  and  ambushed  them,  killing 
six  of  the  Nez  Perces. 

The  newcomers  warned  Ross  that  enemies  were 
about,  and  as  the  trapping  party  was  just  about  to  enter 
a  narrow  valley,  Ross  with  thirty-five  men  set  out  to 
examine  it  before  the  main  party  entered.  They  had 
looked  it  partly  over,  when  they  saw  distant  Indians 
hurrying  to  cover,  and  pursued  them.  The  strangers 
got  into  the  timber.  The  trappers  asked  the  Indians 
to  come  out  of  the  woods  and  smoke,  and  the  In- 
dians invited  them  to  come  into  the  woods  and  smoke; 
but  neither  party  accepted  the  invitation.  The  In- 
dians claimed  to  be  Crows,  but  Ross  believed  they  were 
Blackfeet.  The  traders  picked  up  some  robes,  arms, 
and  moccasins,  thrown  away  in  flight,  which  they  left 
near  the  hiding-place  of  the  Indians,  and  were  just 
about  to  return,  when,  as  they  were  mounting,  they  saw 
what  looked  like  a  large  party  of  people  coming.  They 
made  preparations  for  a  fight,  and  then  discovered  that 
the  approaching  body  consisted  of  a  large  band  of 
horses,  driven  by  four  men.  Ross  with  fifteen  men 
charged  toward  the  horses,  whose  drivers  fled,  leaving 
the  herd.  Among  the  horses  were  forty-three  which 
belonged  in  Ross's  camp  and  one  of  those  taken  from 
the  two  trappers  sent  as  messengers  to  the'  Goddin 
River  party.  The  trappers  overtook  and  captured 
three  of  the  Indians  and  took  them  back  to  the  camp. 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  117 

There  a  court-martial  was  held  and  the  three  captives 
were  condemned  to  die,  but  Ross  the  next  morning  suc- 
ceeded in  letting  them  escape. 

The  return  to  the  Flathead  House  was  devoid  of  any 
special  events  save  those  of  ordinary  prairie  and  moun- 
tain travel.  On  the  way  they  had  to  pass  through  deep 
snows  and  across  frozen  rivers  where  the  ice  was  not 
always  safe,  and  at  one  such  point  they  lost  a  horse, 
and  two  of  the  men  came  near  sharing  its  fate.  They 
reached  there  the  last  of  November. 

The  results  of  the  trip  amounted  to  five  thousand 
beaver,  exclusive  of  other  furs — a  very  successful 
summer. 

In  a  note  appended  to  a  brief  vocabulary  of  the 
Snake  language  given  by  Ross  he  makes  the  follow- 
ing interesting  prophecy:  "I  can  state  with  undi- 
minished confidence,  that  the  Snake  country  towards 
the  Rocky  Mountains  is,  and  will  be,  rich  in  furs  for 
some  generations  to  come,  and  full  of  interest  to  men 
of  enterprise.  Indeed,  the  dangers  by  which  it  was  then, 
and  still  is,  in  a  more  or  less  degree,  surrounded,  will 
always  tend  to  preserve  the  furs  in  that  inland  quarter." 

Little  more  than  two  generations  have  passed,  and 
the  fur  in  what  used  to  be  the  Snake  country  has 
absolutely  disappeared.  The  dangers  from  Indians 
have  long  been  forgotten,  though  among  the  Indians 
toward  the  coast  the  tradition  of  the  terrible  Blackfeet 
yet  persists,  and  they  still  speak  of  the  Blackfeet  as 
"bad  people." 

The  following  spring  Governor  Simpson  wrote   to 


Ii8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Ross,  asking  him  to  try  and  procure  two  Indian  boys 
to  be  educated  at  the  Red  River  Colony.  Ross  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  a  Kutenai  and  a  Spokane  boy,  each 
ten  or  twelve  years  old.  They  were  given  up  by  the 
Indians  with  great  regret.  One  of  the  fathers  said: 
**We  have  given  you  our  hearts — our  children  are  our 
hearts;  but  bring  them  back  again  to  us  before  they 
become  white  men — we  wish  to  see  them  once  more 
Indians — and  after  that,  you  can  make  them  white  men, 
if  you  like."  The  Kutenai  boy  died  after  two  or  three 
years  at  school,  but  some  years  later  the  Spokane  boy 
returned  to  his  people.     He  did  not  turn  out  very  well. 

The  next  spring  Ross  started  to  Spokane  House  to 
turn  in  his  furs,  and  then  finally  to  leave  the  fur  trade. 
Here  he  met  Governor  Simpson,  who  promised  him  a 
situation  in  Red  River  Colony  until  such  time  as  he 
should  be  able  to  establish  himself.  The  governor 
started  back  with  the  party.  The  return  journey  was 
long  and  laborious.  Isolated  parties  of  Indians  were 
met,  in  all  of  whom  Ross  took  keen  interest.  He  gives 
a  graphic  description  of  travel  through  mountains,  and 
draws  a  picture  which  gives  some  idea  of  the  difficulties 
of  the  journeys  made  by  these  early  travellers,  and  of 
the  hardihood  and  endurance  of  those  who  performed 
them. 

Little  does  the  traveller  of  the  present  day,  hurrying 
along  by  train,  or  by  steamboat,  comprehend  the  con- 
stant labor  of  those  early  days. 

They  were  journeying  on  foot  up  the  course  of  a 
winding,  rushing  river: 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  119 

"When  the  current  proves  too  strong  or  the  water 
too  deep  for  one  person  to  attempt  [to  cross]  it  alone,  the 
whole  join  hands  together,  forming  a  chain,  and  thus 
cross  in  an  oblique  Hne,  to  break  the  strength  of  the 
current;  the  tallest  always  leading  the  van.  By  their 
united  efforts,  when  a  light  person  is  swept  off  his 
feet,  which  not  unfrequently  happens,  the  party  drag 
him  along;  and  the  first  who  reaches  the  shore  always 
lays  hold  of  the  branches  of  some  friendly  tree  or  bush 
that  may  be  in  the  way;  the  second  does  the  same,  and 
so  on  till  all  get  out  of  the  water.  But  often  they 
are  no  sooner  out  than  in  again;  and  perhaps  several 
traverses  will  have  to  be  made  within  the  space  of  a 
hundred  yards,  and  sometimes  within  a  few  yards  of 
each  other;  just  as  the  rocks,  or  other  impediments 
bar  the  way.  After  crossing  several  times,  I  regretted 
that  I  had  not  begun  sooner  to  count  the  number;  but 
before  night,  I  had  sixty-two  traverses  marked  on 
my  walking-stick,  which  served  as  my  journal  through- 
out the  day. 

"When  not  among  ice  and  snow,  or  in  the  water,  we 
had  to  walk  on  a  stony  beach,  or  on  gravelly  flats, 
being  constantly  in  and  out  of  the  water:  many  had 
got  their  feet  blistered,  which  was  extremely  painful. 
The  cold  made  us  advance  at  a  quick  pace,  to  keep 
ourselves  warm;  and  despatch  was  the  order  of  the 
day.  The  Governor  himself,  generally  at  the  head, 
made  the  first  plunge  into  the  water,  and  was  not  the 
last  to  get  out.     His  smile  encouraged  others,  and  his 


I20  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

example  checked  murmuring.  At  a  crossing-place 
there  was  seldom  a  moment's  hesitation;  all  plunged 
in,  and  had  to  get  out  as  they  could.  And  we  had  to 
be  lightly  clad,  so  as  to  drag  less  water.  Our  general 
course  to-day  was  north-east,  but  we  had  at  times  to 
follow  every  point  of  the  compass,  and  might  have 
travelled  altogether  twenty  miles,  although  in  a  direct 
line  we  scarcely  advanced  eight.  The  ascent  appeared 
to  be  gradual,  yet  the  contrary  was  indicated  by  the 
rapidity  of  the  current.  After  a  day  of  excessive 
fatigue,  we  halted  at  dusk,  cooked  our  suppers,  dried 
our  clothes,  smoked  our  pipes,  then,  each  spreading 
his  blanket,  we  laid  ourselves  down  to  rest;  and,  per- 
haps, of  all  rest,  that  enjoyed  on  the  voyage,  after  a 
hard  day's  labour,  is  the  sweetest. 

"To  give  a  correct  idea  of  this  part  of  our  journey, 
let  the  reader  picture  in  his  own  mind  a  dark,  narrow 
defile,  skirted  on  one  side  by  a  chain  of  inaccessible 
mountains,  rising  to  a  great  height,  covered  with  snow, 
and  slippery  with  ice  from  their  tops  down  to  the 
water's  edge.  And  on  the  other  side,  a  beach  com- 
paratively low,  but  studded  in  an  irregular  manner 
with  standing  and  fallen  trees,  rocks,  and  ice,  and  full 
of  drift-wood;  over  which  the  torrent  everywhere 
rushes  with  such  irresistible  impetuosity,  that  very  few 
would  dare  to  adventure  themselves  in  the  stream. 
Let  him  again  imagine  a  rapid  river  descending  from 
some  great  height,  filling  up  the  whole  channel  be- 
tween the  rocky  precipices  on  the  south  and  the  no 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  121 

less  dangerous  barrier  on  the  north.  And  lastly,  let 
him  suppose  that  we  were  obliged  to  make  our  way 
on  foot  against  such  a  torrent,  by  crossing  and  recross- 
ing  it  in  all  its  turns  and  windings  from  morning  till 
night,  up  to  the  middle  in  water, — and  he  will  under- 
stand that  we  have  not  exaggerated  the  difficulties  to 
be  overcome  in  crossing  the  Rocky  Mountains." 

At  last  the  party  reached  the  summit  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  passing  by  the  Rocky  Mountain  House, 
took  canoes.  Here  they  found  Joseph  Felix  Larocque, 
and  from  here  they  went  on  down  the  Athabasca  in 
canoes  to  Jasper  House  and  to  Fort  Assiniboine;  and 
there  again  changing  to  horses,  at  last  reached  Ed- 
monton. This  was  then  the  centre  of  a  great  trade, 
and  was  under  charge  of  Mr.  Rowan,  chief  factor  of 
the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  earlier  a  partner  in  the 
Northwest  Company. 

The  further  journey  back  toward  the  Red  River  was 
marked  by  the  meeting,  near  Lake  Bourbon — Cedar 
Lake — with  Captain  Franklin  and  Dr.  Richardson  on 
their  overland  Arctic  expedition. 

At  Norway  House  Governor  Simpson  stopped,  while 
Ross  was  to  keep  on  eastward.  Governor  Simpson, 
after  again  trying  to  persuade  Ross  to  remain  in  the 
service  of  the  company,  made  him  a  free  grant  of 
one  hundred  acres  of  land  in  the  Red  River  Settle- 
ment, and  paid  him  many  compliments  on  his  efficiency 
and  success  in  the  Snake  country. 

With  a  party  of  twenty-seven  people,  a  motley  crew 


122  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

of  incompetents,  Ross  started  from  Norway  House 
for  Red  River.  He  quotes  an  interestingly  boastful 
speech  by  an  ancient  French  voyageur: 

"  *I  have  now,'  said  he,  *been  forty-two  years  in  this 
country.  For  twenty-four  I  was  a  light  canoe-man;  I 
required  but  httle  sleep,  but  sometimes  got  less  than 
I  required.  No  portage  was  too  long  for  me;  all  port- 
ages were  alike.  My  end  of  the  canoe  never  touched 
the  ground  till  I  saw  the  end  of  it.  Fifty  songs  a 
day  were  nothing  to  me.  I  could  carry,  paddle,  walk, 
and  sing  with  any  man  I  ever  saw.  During  that 
period,  I  saved  the  lives  of  ten  bourgeois,  and  was 
always  the  favourite,  because  when  others  stopped  to 
carry  at  a  bad  step,  and  lost  time,  I  pushed  on — over 
rapids,  over  cascades,  over  chutes;  all  were  the  same 
to  me.  No  water,  no  weather,  ever  stopped  the  paddle 
or  the  song.  I  have  had  twelve  wives  in  the  country; 
and  was  once  possessed  of  fifty  horses,  and  six  running 
dogs,  trimmed  in  the  first  style.  I  was  then  Hke  a 
bourgeois,  rich  and  happy:  no  bourgeois  had  better- 
dressed  wives  than  I;  no  Indian  chief  finer  horses;  no 
white  man  better-harnessed  or  swifter  dogs.  I  beat 
all  Indians  at  the  race,  and  no  white  man  ever  passed 
me  in  the  chase.  I  wanted  for  nothing;  and  I  spent 
all  my  earnings  in  the  enjoyment  of  pleasure.  Five 
hundred  pounds,  twice  told,  have  passed  through  my 
hands;  although  now  I  have  not  a  spare  shirt  to  my 
back,  nor  a  penny  to  buy  one.  Yet,  were  I  young  again, 
I  should  glory  in  commencing  the  same  career  again. 


Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West  123 

I  would  gladly  spend  another  half-century  in  the  same 
fields  of  enjoyment.  There  is  no  life  so  happy  as  a 
voyageur's  life;  none  so  independent;  no  place  where 
a  man  enjoys  so  much  variety  and  freedom  as  in  the 
Indian  country.  Huzza!  huzza!  pour  le  pays  sau- 
vage!'  After  this  cri  de  joie,  he  sat  down  in  the  boat, 
and  we  could  not  help  admiring  the  wild  enthusiasm 
of  the  old  Frenchman.  He  had  boasted  and  excited 
himself,  till  he  was  out  of  breath,  and  then  sighed  with 
regret  that  he  could  no  longer  enjoy  the  scenes  of  his 
past  life." 

On  the  journey  there  was  excitement  enough,  storms 
and  running  aground — usual  incidents  of  canoe  travel 
— but  at  last  they  reached  Red  River,  and  Ross's  fur 
trading  journeys  were  over. 


WHEN  BEAVER  SKINS  WERE  MONEY 


WHEN  BEAVER  SKINS  WERE  MONEY 

1 

BENT'S  FORT 

WHENEVER  the  history  of  the  Southwest 
shall  be  written,  more  than  one  long  and  in- 
teresting chapter  must  be  devoted  to  the 
first  permanent  settlement  on  its  plains  and  the  first 
permanent  settler  there.  In  the  accounts  of  that  wide 
territory  through  which  the  old  Santa  Fe  trail  passed, 
William  Bent  and  Bent's  Old  Fort  have  frequent 
mention.  ,x^ 

Who  were  the  Bents  and  whence  did  they  come? 

Silas  Bent  was  born  in  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts 
in  1768.  His  father  is  said  to  have  been  one  of  those 
who  attended  the  famous  "Boston  Tea  Party."  Silas 
was  educated  for  the  bar,  and  came  to  St.  Louis  in 
1804  at  the  time  the  government  of  Louisiana  was 
turned  over  to  the  American  authorities.  Here  he 
served  as  a  judge  of  the  Superior  Court,  and  here  he 
resided  until  his  death,  in  1827. 

Of  his  seven  sons,  John  was  educated  for  the  bar 
and  became  a  well-known  attorney  of  St.  Louis.  The 
youngest  son,  Silas,  as  flag-lieutenant  of  the  flag-ship 

127 


128  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

"Mississippi,"  was  with  Perry  In  Japan,  and  wrote  a 
report  on  the  Japan  current  for  an  American  scientific 
society.  He  dehvered  addresses  on  meteorology  in 
St.  Louis  In  1879,  and  on  cHmate  as  affecting  cattle- 
breeding  in  the  year  1884.  Four  other  sons — Charles, 
William  W.,  and  later  George  and 'Robert — were  prom- 
inent in  the  Indian  trade  on  the  upper  Arkansas  and 
elsewhere  between  1820  and  1850,  and  remained  trading 
in  that  region  until  they  died. 

The  leading  spirit  in  this  family  of  Indian  traders 
was  William  W.  Bent.  Early  In  life  Charles  and  Wil- 
liam Bent  had  been  up  on  the  Missouri  River  working 
for  the  American  Fur  Company.  Colonel  Bent  stated 
to  his  son  George  that  he  went  up  there  in  the  year 
1 8 16,  when  very  young.^  Very  likely  he  was  then  a 
small  boy  only  ten  or  twelve  years  old.  It  was  there 
that  Charles  and  William  Bent  became  acquainted 
with  Robert  Campbell,  of  St.  Louis,  who  remained  a 
firm  friend  of  the  brothers  throughout  his  life.  Wil- 
liam Bent  could  speak  the  Sioux  language  fluently  and 
the  Sioux  had  called  him  Wa-si'cha-chischi'-la,  meaning 
Little  White  Man,  a  name  which  confirms  the  state- 
ment that  he  entered  the  trade  very  young,  and  seems 
to  warrant  the  belief  that  his  work  for  the  fur  com- 
pany was  at  some  post  In  the  Sioux  country. 

In  his  testimony  before  the  joint  commission  which 
inquired   Into   Indian   affairs   on   the   plains   in    1865, 

1  The  history  of  The  Bent  Family  in  America  gives  the  date  of  William 
Bent's  birth  as  1809,  which  can  hardly  be  made  to  agree  with  this  statement. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money         129 

William  Bent  stated  that  he  had  first  come  to  the 
upper  Arkansas  and  settled  near  the  Purgatoire,  just 
below  the  present  city  of  Pueblo,  Colorado,  in  1824; 
that  is  to  say,  two  years  before  he  and  his  brother 
began  to  erect  their  first  trading  estabhshment  on  the 
Arkansas.  Previous  to  this  time  William  Bent  had 
been  trapping  In  the  mountains  near  there,  and  may 
very  well  have  done  some  individual  trading  with  the 
Indians. 

WiUIam  Bent  was  undoubtedly  the  first  permanent 
white  settler  in  what  is  now  Colorado,  and  for  a  very 
long  time  he  was  not  only  its  first  settler,  but  remained 
its  most  important  white  citizen. 

By  his  fair  and  open  deahngs,  by  his  fearless  conduct, 
and  by  his  love  of  justice,  WilHam  Bent  soon  won  the 
respect  and  confidence  of  the  Indians  with  whom  he 
had  to  do.  Among  the  rough  fraternity  of  mountain 
trappers  he  was  also  very  popular,  his  reputation  for 
courage  being  remarkable  even  among  that  class  of 
daring  men.  He  was  tirelessly  active  in  prosecuting 
the  aims  of  his  trade,  making  frequent  trips  to  the 
camps  of  the  various  tribes  with  which  he,  and  later 
his  company,  had  dealings,  and  to  the  Mexican  settle- 
ments in  the  valley  of  Taos  and  to  Santa  Fe.  Every 
year,  probably  from  1824  to  1864,  he  made  at  least 
one  journey  from  the  fort  on  the  Arkansas,  across  the 
plains  of  Colorado,  Kansas,  and  Missouri,  to  the  settle- 
ments on  the  Missouri  frontier. 

About  1835  William  Bent  married  Owl  Woman,  the 


130  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

daughter  of  White  Thunder,  an  important  man  among 
the  Cheyennes,  then  the  keeper  of  the  medicine  arrows. 
Bent's  Fort  was  his  home,  and  there  his  children  were 
born,  the  oldest,  Mary,  about  1836,  Robert  in  1839 — 
his  own  statement  made  in  1865  says  1841 — George  in 
July,  1843,  and  Julia  in  1847.  Owl  Woman  died  at  the 
fort  in  1847  in  giving  birth  to  Julia,  and  her  husband 
afterward  married  her  sister,  Yellow  Woman.  Charles 
Bent  was  the  child  of  his  second  marriage. 
'^  William  Bent  appears  to  have  been  the  first  of  the 
^  brothers  to  go  into  the  Southwestern  country  to  trade 
for  fur,  but  Charles  is  said  to. have  gone  to  Santa  Fe 
as  early  as  18 19,  and  a  Httle  later  must  have  joined 
William.  The  two,  with  Ceran  St.  Vrain  and  one  of 
the  Chouteaus,  established  the  early  trading  post  near 
the  Arkansas.  After  occupying  this  stockade  for  two 
years  or  more,  they  moved  down  below  Pueblo  and 
.built  another  stockade  on  the  Arkansas.  Two  years 
later  they  began  to  build  the  more  ambitious  post 
aSlrward  known  as  Bent's,  or  Fort  William,  or  Bent's 
Old  Fort.  George  and  Robert  Bent  apparently  did 
not  come  out  to  the  fort  until  after  it  was  completed — 
perhaps  after  it  had  been  for  some  time  in  operation. 
Benito  Vasquez  was  at  one  time  a  partner  in  the  com- 
pany. 

It  was  in  1828  that  the  Bent  brothers,  with  St.  Vrain, 
began  this  large  fort,  fifteen  miles  above  the  mouth  of 
Purgatoire  River.  It  was  not  completed  until  1832. 
Four  years  seems  a  long  time  to  be  spent  in  the  con- 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        131 

struction  of  such  a  post,  even  though  it  was  built  of 
adobe  brick,  but  there  were  reasons  for  the  delay. 
Charles  Bent  was  determined  that  the  fort  should  be 
built  of  adobes  in  order  to  make  it  fireproof,  so  that 
under  no  circumstances  could  it  be  burned  by  the 
Indians.  Besides  that,  adobes  were  much  more  dura- 
ble and  more  comfortable — cool  in  summer,  warm  in 
winter — than  logs  would  have  been.  When  the  ques- 
tion of  how  the  fort  should  be  built  had  been  decided, 
Charles  Bent  went  to  New  Mexico,  and  from  Taos  and 
Santa  Fe  sent  over  a  number  of  Mexicans  to  make 
adobe  brick.  With  them  he  sent  some  wagon-loads  of 
Mexican  wool  to  mix  with  the  clay  of  the  bricks,  thus 
greatly  lengthening  the  life  of  the  adobes. 

Only  a  short  time,  however,  after  the  laborers  had 
reached  the  intended  site  of  the  fort,  smallpox  broke 
out  among  them,  and  it  was  necessary  to  send  away  those 
not  attacked.  William  Bent,  St.  Vrain,  Kit  Carson, 
and  other  white  men  who  were  there  caught  the  small- 
pox from  the  Mexicans,  and  though  none  died  they 
were  so  badly  marked  by  it  that  some  of  the  Indians 
who  had  known  them  well  in  the  early  years  of  the 
trading  did  not  recognize  them  when  they  met  again. 

During  the  prevalence  of  the  smallpox  at  the  post 
William  Bent  sent  a  runner,  Francisco,  one  of  his  Mex- 
ican herders,  north,  to  warn  the  Cheyennes  not  to  come 
near  the  post.  Francisco  set  out  for  the  Black  Hills, 
and  on  his  way  encountered  a  large  war-party  of 
Cheyennes  on  their  way  to  the  fort.     He  told  them  of 


\ 


132  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

what  had  happened,  and  warned  them  to  return  north 
and  not  to  come  near  the  post  until  sent  for.  The 
Cheyennes  obeyed,  and  it  was  not  until  some  time 
later,  when  all  at  Fort  William  had  recovered  and 
when  the  temporary  stockade  with  all  the  infected 
material  that  it  contained  had  been  burned,  that  Bent 
and  St.  Vrain,  with  a  few  pack-mules,  started  north  for 
the  Black  Hills  to  find  the  Cheyennes  and  invite  them 
to  return  to  the  post.  The  year  of  this  journey  has 
been  given  me  as  183 1.  Perhaps  it  may  have  been  a 
year  earlier. 

After  the  smallpox  had  ceased,  more  Mexican  labor- 
ers were  sent  for,  and  work  on  the  fort  was  resumed. 
Not  long  before  his  death.  Kit  Carson  stated  that  at 
one  time  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  Mexicans  were 
at  work  on  the  construction  of  the  post. 

Accounts  of  the  dimensions  of  the  fort  differ,  but  on 
certain  points  all  agree:  that  it  was  of  adobes,  set 
square  with  the  points  of  the  compass,  and  on  the  north 
bank  of  the  Arkansas  River.  Garrard  says  that  the 
post  was  a  hundred  feet  square  and  the  walls  thirty 
feet  in  height.  Another  account  says  that  the  walls 
ran  a  hundred  and  fifty  feet  east  and  west  and  a  hun- 
dred feet  north  and  south,  and  that  they  were  seven- 
teen feet  high.  J.  T.  Hughes,  however,  in  his  Doni- 
phan s  ExpeditioUy  printed  in  Cincinnati  in  1848,  says: 

''Fort  Bent  is  situated  on  the  north  bank  of  the  Ar- 
kansas, 650  miles  west  of  Fort  Leavenworth,  in  lati- 
tude 38°  2'  north,  and  longitude   103°   3'  west  from 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        133 

Greenwich.  The  exterior  walls  of  this  fort,  whose  fig- 
ure is  that  of  an  oblong  square,  are  fifteen  feet  high 
and  four  feet  thick.  It  is  180  feet  long  and  135  feet 
wide  and  is  divided  into  various  compartments,  the 
whole  built  of  adobes  or  sun-dried  bricks." 

At  the  southwest  and  northeast  corners  of  these  walls 
were  bastions,  or  round  towers,  thirty  feet  in  height 
and  ten  feet  in  diameter  inside,  with  loopholes  for 
muskets  and  openings  for  cannon.  Garrard  speaks  of 
the  bastions  as  hexagonal  in  form. 

Around  the  walls  in  the  second  stories  of  the  bastions 
hung  sabres  and  great  heavy  lances  with  long,  sharp 
blades.  These  were  intended  for  use  in  case  an  at- 
tempt were  made  to  take  the  fort  by  means  of  ladders 
put  up  against  the  wall.  Besides  these  cutting  and 
piercing  implements,  the  walls  were  hung  with  flint-lock 
muskets  and  pistols. 

In  the  east  wall  of  the  fort  was  a  wide  gateway 
formed  by  two  immense  swinging  doors  made  of  heavy 
planks.  These  doors  were  studded  with  heavy  nails 
and  plated  with  sheet-iron,  so  that  they  could  never 
be  burned  by  the  Indians.  The  same  was  true  of  the 
gateway  which  entered  the  corral,  to  be  described 
later. 

Over  the  main  gate  of  the  fort  was  a  square  watch 
tower  surmounted  by  a  belfry,  from  the  top  of  which 
rose  a  flagstaff.  The  watch  tower  contained  a  single 
room  with  windows  on  all  sides,  and  in  the  room  was 
an  old-fashioned  long  telescope,  or  spy-glass,  mounted 


134  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

on  a  pivot.  Here  certain  members  of  the  garrison,  re- 
Heving  each  other  at  stated  intervals,  were  constantly 
on  the  lookout.  There  was  a  chair  for  the  watchman 
to  sit  in  and  a  bed  for  his  sleeping.  If  the  watchman, 
through  his  glass,  noticed  anything  unusual — for  ex- 
ample, if  he  saw  a  great  dust  rising  over  the  prairie — 
he  notified  the  people  below.  If  a  suspicious-looking 
party  of  Indians  was  seen  approaching,  the  watchman 
signalled  to  the  herder  to  bring  in  the  horses,  for  the 
stock  was  never  turned  loose,  but  was  always  on  herd. 

In  the  belfry,  under  a  little  roof  which  rose  above  the 
watch  tower,  hung  the  bell  of  the  fort,  which  sounded 
the  hours  for  meals.  Two  tame  white-headed  eagles 
kept  at  the  fort  were  sometimes  confined  within  this 
belfry,  or  at  others  were  allowed  to  fly  about  free,  re- 
turning of  their  own  accord  to  sleep  in  the  belfry. 
One  of  these  eagles  finally  disappeared,  and  for  a  long 
time  it  was  not  known  what  had  become  of  it.  Then 
it  was  learned  that  it  had  been  killed  for  its  feathers  by 
a  young  Indian  at  some  distance  from  the  fort. 

At  the  back  of  the  fort  over  the  gate,  which  opened 
into  the  corral,  was  a  second-story  room  rising  high 
above  the  walls,  as  the  watch  tower  did  in  front. 
This  room — an  extraordinary  luxury  for  the  time — 
was  used  as  a  billiard-room  during  the  later  years  of 
the  post.  It  was  long  enough  to  accommodate  a  large 
billiard-table,  and  across  one  end  of  the  room  ran  a 
counter,  or  bar,  over  which  drinkables  were  served. 
These  luxuries  were  brought  out  by  Robert  and  George 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money         135 

Bent,  young  men  who  did  not  come  out  to  the  fort 
until  some  time  after  it  had  been  constructed,  and 
who,  being  city-dwellers — for  I  have  no  record  of  their 
having  any  early  experience  of  frontier  life — no  doubt 
felt  that  they  required  city  amusements. 

The  watch  tower  and  bilhard-room  were  supported 
on  heavy  adobe  walls  running  at  right  angles  to  the 
main  enclosing  walls  of  the  fort,  and  these  supporting 
walls  formed  the  ends  of  the  rooms  on  either  side  of 
the  gates  in  the  outer  walls. 

The  stores,  warehouses,  and  living-rooms  of  the  post 
were  ranged  around  the  walls,  and  opened  into  the 
patio,  or  courtyard — the  hollow  square  within.  In 
some  of  the  books  dealing  with  these  old  times  it  is 
said  that  when  the  Indians  entered  the  fort  to  trade, 
cannon  were  loaded  and  sentries  patrolled  the  walls 
with  loaded  guns.  This  may  have  been  true  of  the 
early  days  of  the  fort,  but  it  was  not  true  of  the  latter 
part  of  the  decade  between  1840  and  1850.  At  that 
time  the  Indians,  or  at  least  the  Cheyenne  Indians, 
had  free  run  of  the  post  and  were  allowed  to  go  up- 
stairs, on  the  walls,  and  into  the  watch  tower.  The 
various  rooms  about  the  courtyard  received  light  and 
air  from  the  doors  and  windows  opening  out  into  this 
courtyard,  which  was  gravelled.  The  floors  of  the 
rooms  were  of  beaten  clay,  as  was  commonly  the  case 
in  Mexican  houses,  and  the  roofs  were  built  in  the  same 
fashion  that  long  prevailed  in  the  West.  Poles  were 
laid  from  the  front  wall  to  the  rear,  slightly  inclined 


136  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

toward  the  front.  Over  these  poles  twigs  or  brush 
were  laid,  and  over  the  brush  clay  was  spread,  tramped 
hard,  and  gravel  thrown  over  this.  These  roofs  were 
used  as  a  promenade  by  the  men  of  the  fort  and  their 
families  in  the  evenings.  The  top  of  the  fort  walls 
reached  about  four  feet  above  these  roofs,  or  breast- 
high  of  a  man,  and  these  walls  were  pierced  with  loop- 
holes through  which  to  shoot  in  case  of  attack. 

Hughes  in  his  Doniphan  s  Expedition  says:  "The 
march  upon  Santa  Fe  was  resumed  Aug.  2,  1846,  after 
a  respite  of  three  days  in  the  neighborhood  of  Fort 
Bent.  As  we  passed  the  fort  the  American  flag  was 
raised  in  compliment  to  our  troops  and  in  concert 
with  our  own  streamed  most  animatingly  on  the  gale 
that  swept  from  the  desert,  while  the  tops  of  the  houses 
were  crowded  with  Mexican  girls  and  Indian  squaws, 
beholding  the  American  Army." 

On  the  west  side  of  the  fort  and  outside  the  walls 
was  the  horse  corral.  It  was  as  wide  as  the  fort  and 
deep  enough  to  contain  a  large  herd.  The  walls  were 
about  eight  feet  high  and  three  feet  thick  at  the  top. 
The  gate  was  on  the  south  side  of  the  corral,  and  so 
faced  the  river.  It  was  of  wood,  but  was  completely 
plated  with  sheet-iron.  More  than  that,  to  prevent 
any  one  from  climbing  in  by  night,  the  tops  of  the 
walls  had  been  thickly  planted  with  cactus — a  large 
variety  which  grows  about  a  foot  high  and  has  great 
fleshy  leaves  closely  covered  with  many  and  sharp 
thorns.     This  grew  so  luxuriantly  that  in  some  places 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        137 

the  leaves  hung  down  over  the  walls,  both  within  and 
without,  and  gave  most  efficient  protection  against 
any  living  thing  that  might  wish  to  surmount  the  wall. 

Through  the  west  wall  of  the  fort  a  door  was  cut, 
leading  from  the  stockade  into  the  corral,  permitting 
people  to  go  through  and  get  horses  without  going 
outside  the  fort  and  opening  the  main  gate  of  the  cor- 
ral. This  door  was  wide  and  arched  at  the  top.  It 
was  made  large  enough,  so  that  in  case  of  necessity — 
if  by  chance  an  attacking  party  seemed  likely  to  cap- 
ture the  horses  and  mules  in  the  corral — the  door  could 
be  opened  and  the  herd  run  inside  the  main  stockade. 

About  two  hundred  yards  to  the  south  of  the  fort, 
and  so  toward  the  river  bank,  on  a  little  mound,  stood 
a  large  ice-house  built  of  adobes  or  sun-dried  bricks. 
In  winter  when  the  river  was  frozen  this  ice-house 
was  filled,  and  in  it  during  the  summer  was  kept  all 
the  surplus  fresh  meat — buffalo  tongues,  antelope, 
dried  meat  and  tongues — and  also  all  the  bacon.  At 
times  the  ice-house  was  hung  thick  with  flesh  food. 

On  hot  days,  with  the  other  little  children,  young 
George  Bent  used  to  go  down  to  the  ice-house  and 
get  in  it  to  cool  off,  and  his  father's  negro  cook  used 
to  come  down  and  send  them  away,  warning  them  not 
to  go  in  there  from  the  hot  sun,  as  it  was  too  cold 
and  they  might  get  sick.  This  negro  cook,  Andrew 
Green  by  name,  a  slave  owned  by  Governor  Charles 
Bent,  was  with  him  when  he  was  killed  in  Taos,  and 
afterward  came  to  the  fort  and  was  there  for  many 


138  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

years,  but  was  at  last  taken  back  to  St.  Louis  and 
there  set  free.  He  had  a  brother  "Dick,"  often 
mentioned  in  the  old  books. 
<^-  Besides  Bent's  Fort,  Bent  and  St.  Vrain  owned 
Fort  St.  Vrain,  on  the  South  Platte,  opposite  the 
mouth  of  St.  Vrain's  Fork,  and  Fort  Adobe,  on  the 
Canadian.  Both  these  posts  were  built  of  adobe 
brick.  Fort  St.  Vrain  was  built  to  trade  with  the 
Northern  Indians;  that  is,  with  the  Sioux  and  North- 
ern Cheyennes,  who  seldom  got  down  south  as  far 
as  the  Arkansas  River,  and  so  would  not  often  come 
to  Fort  William.  The  Fort  Adobe  on  the  Canadian 
was  built  by  request  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Kiowa,  Co- 
manche, and  Apache  to  trade  with  these  people.  The 
chiefs  who  made  this  request  were  To'hau  sen  (Little 
Mountain)  and  Eagle-Tail  Feathers,  speaking  for 
the  Kiowa,  Shaved  Head  for  the  Comanche,  and 
Poor  (Lean)  Bear  for  the  Apache. 

These  in  their  day  were  men  of  importance.  Shaved 
Head  was  a  great  friend  of  the  whites  and  a  man  of 
much  influence  with  his  own  people  and  with  neigh- 
boring tribes.  He  wore  the  left  side  of  his  head  shaved 
close,  while  the  hair  on  the  right  side  was  long,  hang- 
ing down  to  his  waist  or  below.  His  left  ear  was 
perforated  with  many  holes  made  by  a  blunt  awl 
heated  red-hot,  and  was  adorned  with  many  little 
brass  rings.  Before  peace  was  made  between  the 
Kiowas,  Comanches,  and  Apaches  in  the  year  1840,  the 
last  three  tribes  were  more  or  less  afraid  to  visit  Fort 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        139 

William,  lest  they  should  there  meet  a  large  camp  of 
their  enemies,  and  Colonel  Bent  and  the  traders  were 
also  especially  anxious  to  avoid  any  collision  at  the 
fort.  Each  tribe  would  expect  the  trader  to  take  its 
part,  and  this  he  could  not  do  without  incurring  the 
enmity  of  the  other  tribes.  The  wish  of  the  trader 
was  to  be  on  good  terms  with  all  tribes,  and  this  William 
Bent  accomplished  with  singular  discretion.  Although 
he  had  a  Cheyenne  wife,  he  was  on  excellent  terms, 
and  always  remained  so,  with  the  enemies  of  the 
Cheyennes. 

Both  Fort  St.  Vrain  and  Fort  Adobe,  being  built 
of  adobes,  lasted  for  a  long  time,  and  their  ruins  have 
been  seen  until  quite  recently.  Near  the  ruins  of 
Fort  Adobe  two  important  fights  have  taken  place, 
to  be  referred  to  later. 

A  In  the  business  of  the  fort  William  Bent  had  the 
direction  of  the  trade  with  the  Indians,  while  his 
brother  Charles  seems  to  have  had  more  to  do  with 
affairs  in  the  Mexican  settlements,  until  his  death 
there,  at  the  hands  of  the  Mexicans  and  Pueblos,  in 
the  year  1847.  It  is  not  certain  when  St.  Vrain,  Lee, 
and  Benito  Vasquez  became  partners  in  the  business, 
nor  how  long  they  were  interested  in  it.  George  and 
Robert  Bent,  who  came  out  from  St.  Louis,  certainly 
later  than  the  two  elder  brothers,  may  have  been 
partners,  but  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  they  were 
so.     Robert  died  in  1847. 

Some  time  before  this  George  Bent  went  to  Mexico 


140  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

and  there  married  a  Mexican  girl,  by  whom  he  had 
two  children,  a  son  and  a  daughter.  The  son,  Rob- 
ert, went  to  school  in  St.  Louis.  He  died  at  Dodge 
City,  Kan.,  in  1875.  George  Bent  was  a  great 
friend  of  Frank  P.  Blair,  whom  he  appointed  guardian 
for  his  children.  He  died  at  the  fort  about  1848  of 
consumption,  and  was  buried  near  his  brother  Robert 
in  the  graveyard  which  lay  a  short  distance  northeast 
of  the  northeast  bastion  of  the  fort.  The  old  tailor, 
a  Frenchman,  afterward  planted  cactus  over  George 
Bent's  grave  to  protect  it  from  the  wolves  and  coyotes. 
Their  remains  were  later  removed  to  St.  Louis. 

After  the  death  of  Charles  Bent,  in  1847,  WilHam 
Bent  continued  his  work.  Perhaps  St.  Vrain  may 
have  remained  a  partner  for  a  time.  Fitzpatrick  speaks 
of  "Messrs.  Bent  and  St.  Vrain's  post"  in  1850.  Bent 
was  an  active  man  and  interested  in  many  other  proj- 
ects besides  the  fort  and  trade  with  the  Indians.  He 
bought  sheep  and  mules  in  New  Mexico  and  drove 
them  across  the  plains  to  the  Missouri  market.  In 
the  forties,  in  company  with  several  other  men,  he 
secured  a  large  land  grant  from  the  Mexican  gov- 
ernment in  the  Arkansas  valley  above  the  fort  and 
attempted  to  found  a  colony  there.  Mexican  settlers 
were  established  on  the  lands.  The  colonists  were 
inert,  the  Indians  were  hostile,  and  from  these  and 
other  causes  the  project  proved  a  failure.  In  1847 
WilHam  Bent  and  St.  Vrain  drove  a  large  herd  of 
Mexican   cattle   to  the  Arkansas  and  wintered  them 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money         141 

in  the  valley  near  the  fort,  thus  making  the  first  step 
toward  establishing  the  cattle  industry,  which  many 
years  later  so  flourished  on  the  plains. 

Besides  his  lands  near  the  fort.  Bent  had  a  fine 
farm  at  Westport  (now  Kansas  City),  in  Missouri, 
and  a  ranch  south  of  the  Arkansas  in  the  Mexican 
territory.  In  1846  he  guided  Colonel  Price's  Mis- 
souri regiment  across  the  plains  to  New  Mexico,  and 
was  so  popular  among  the  volunteer  officers  that  they 
gave  him  the  brevet  of  colonel,  a  title  which  stuck 
to  him  until  the  day  of  his  death. 

II 

GOVERNOR  CHARLES  BENT 

Charles  Bent  was  a  close  rival  to  his  brother 
WiUiam  in  the  esteem  of  his  fellow  traders  and  the 
trappers  and  Indians  of  the  Arkansas.  He  seems 
from  the  first,  however,  to  have  taken  the  most 
active  part  in  the  Santa  Fe  trade  of  the  company, 
leaving  the  Indian  trade  to  the  other  partners.  Among 
the  traders  and  teamsters  of  the  Santa  Fe  caravans 
he  was  as  much  liked  as  William  Bent  was  among  the 
trappers  and  Indians;  indeed,  on  more  than  one  occa- 
sion, he  was  elected  captain  of  the  caravan  and  con- 
ducted it  safely  to  Santa  Fe.  These  caravans  of 
Missouri  traders  were  richly  laden  for  those  days.  The 
outfit  of  1832  brought  back  from  New  Mexico  $100,000 
in  specie  and  $90,000  in  other  property,  including  large 


142  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

numbers  of  Mexican  mules.  In  1833  the  caravan 
with  Bent  as  captain  assembled  at  Diamond  Springs, 
on  the  Missouri  frontier.  There  were  184  men,  with 
ninety-three  large  wagons  loaded  with  goods.  They 
brought  back  $100,000  in  money  and  much  other 
property. 

Charles  Bent  married  a  Mexican  woman  and  made 
his  home  at  San  Fernando,^  a  small  town  in  the  val- 
ley of  Taos.  He  was  popular  among  his  Mexican 
and  Pueblo  neighbors  until  he  was  appointed  gov- 
ernor of  the  territory  by  General  Kearny,  who  marched 
into  New  Mexico  with  his  little  army  in  the  fall.  Hav- 
ing put  Governor  Bent  and  his  civil  government  in 
control  of  affairs,  the  general  left  a  few  troops  in  and 
about  Santa  Fe,  and  with  the  rest  of  his  forces  marched 
for  California.  Hardly  had  he  gone  when  rumors  of 
a  revolt  of  the  Mexican  and  Indian  population  against 
American  rule  began  to  be  heard,  and  late  in  Decem- 
ber evidence  of  such  a  plot  was  unearthed.  These 
events  are  set  forth  in  the  following  letter  from  Gov- 
ernor Bent  to  the  Hon.  James  Buchanan,  secretary  of 
state: 

"Santa  Fe,  N.  M.,  Dec.  26,  1846. — Sir:  I  have  been 
informed  indirectly  that  Col.  A.  W.  Doniphan,  who, 
in  October  last,  marched  with  his  regiment  against 
the  Navajo  Indians,  has  made  treaty  of  peace  with 
them.  Not  having  been  officially  notified  of  this 
treaty,  I  am  not  able  to  state  the  terms  upon  which 

^  This  name  is  spelled  in  various  ways  even  by  Mexicans. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        143 

it  has  been  concluded;  but,  so  far  as  I  am  able  to 
learn,  I  have  but  httle  ground  to  hope  that  it  will 
be  permanent. 

"On  the  17th  inst.  I  received  information  from  a 
Mexican  friendly  to  our  Government  that  a  conspiracy 
was  on  foot  among  the  native  Mexicans,  having  for 
its  object  the  expulsion  of  the  United  States  troops 
and  the  civil  authorities  from  the  territory.  I  im- 
mediately brought  into  requisition  every  means  in  my 
power  to  ascertain  who  were  the  movers  in  the  re- 
bellion, and  have  succeeded  in  securing  seven  of  the 
secondary  conspirators.  The  mihtary  and  civil  offi- 
cers are  now  both  in  pursuit  of  the  two  leaders  and 
prime  movers  of  the  rebellion;  but  as  several  days 
have  elapsed,  I  am  apprehensive  that  they  will  have 
made  their  escape  from  the  territory. 

"So  far  as  I  am  informed  this  conspiracy  is  con- 
fined to  the  four  northern  counties  of  the  territory, 
and  the  men  considered  as  leaders  in  the  affair  cannot 
be  said  to  be  men  of  much  standing. 

"After  obtaining  the  necessary  information  to  desig- 
nate and  secure  the  persons  of  the  participators  in 
the  conspiracy,  I  thought  it  advisable  to  turn  them 
over  to  the  military  authorities  in  order  that  these 
persons  might  be  dealt  with  more  summarily  and 
expeditiously  than  they  could  have  been  by  the  civil 
authorities. 

"The  occurrence  of  this  conspiracy  at  this  early 
period  of  the  occupation  of  the  territory  will,  I  think. 


144  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

conclusively  convince  our  Government  of  the  neces- 
sity of  maintaining  here,  for  several  years  to  come, 
an  efficient  military  force." 

Having  taken  measures  for  the  arrest  of  the  leaders 
of  the  consplrac}^,  Governor  Bent  set  out  from  Santa 
Fe  early  in  January  for  a  few  da.ys'  visit  to  his  family 
at  San  Fernando,  near  the  pueblo  of  Taos,  Inhabited 
by  civilized  Pueblo  Indians.  Three  Pueblo  thieves 
had  been  arrested  and  locked  up  In  the  calabozo  at 
San  Fernando  some  time  before  Governor  Bent's 
arrival.  On  the  19th  of  January  a  mob  of  Pueblos 
entered  the  town  and  attempted  to  force  the  American 
sheriff,  Lee,  to  give  up  these  three  prisoners.  Lee, 
being  helpless  to  resist  the  Indians'  demands,  was 
on  the  point  of  releasing  his  prisoners  when  the  prefect 
of  the  town,  Vigil,  a  Mexican  who  had  taken  office 
under  the  American  Government,  appeared  among 
the  Indians  and,  calling  out  to  them  in  a  fury  that 
they  were  all  thieves  and  scoundrels,  ordered  Lee 
to  hold  the  three  prisoners.  Enraged  at  the  prefect's 
harsh  words,  the  Pueblos  rushed  upon  him,  killed 
him,  cut  his  body  Into  small  pieces,  and  then,  being 
joined  by  a  number  of  Mexicans,  set  out  to  kill  every 
American  in  the  settlement. 

Governor  Bent's  house  was  the  first  they  visited. 
He  was  still  in  bed  when  aroused  by  his  wife  on  the 
approach  of  the  mob,  and  he  at  once  sprang  up  and 
ran  to  a  window,  through  which  he  called  to  a  Mexican 
neighbor  to  help  him  get  through  into  his  house  and 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        145 

conceal  him.  The  Mexican  refused  his  aid  and  repHed 
that  he  must  die.  Seeing  that  all  ways  of  escape 
were  blocked,  the  governor  quietly  left  the  window 
and  returned  to  his  family.  "He  withdrew  into  his 
room,"  writes  Mr.  Dunn,  "and  the  Indians  began 
tearing  up  the  roof.  With  all  the  calmness  of  a  noble 
soul  he  stood  awaiting  his  doom.  His  wife  brbught 
him  his  pistols  and  told  him  to  fight,  to  avenge  him- 
self, even  if  he  must  die.  The  Indians  were  exposed 
to  his  aim,  but  he  replied,  'No,  I  will  not  kill  any 
one  of  them;  for  the  sake  of  you,  my  wife,  and  you, 
my  children.  At  present  my  death  is  all  these  people 
wish.'  As  the  savages  poured  into  the  room  he  ap- 
pealed to  their  manhood  and  honor,  but  in  vain. 
They  laughed  at  his  plea.  They  told  him  they  were 
about  to  kill  every  American  in  New  Mexico  and 
would  begin  with  him.  An  arrow  followed  the  word, 
another  and  another,  but  the  mode  was  not  swift 
enough.  One,  more  impatient,  sent  a  bullet  through 
his  heart.  As  he  fell,  Tomas,  a  chief,  stepped  for- 
ward, snatched  one  of  his  pistols,  and  shot  him  in 
the  face.  They  took  his  scalp,  stretched  it  on  a  board 
with  brass  nails,  and  carried  it  through  the  streets 
in  triumph." 

Garrard,  who  was  at  Taos  in  the  days  immediately 
following  the  massacre,  tells  of  Governor  Bent's  death 
in  the  following  words: 

"While  here  in  Fernandez  (San  Fernandez)  with 
his  family  he  was  one  morning  early  aroused  from  sleep 


146  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

by  the  populace,  who,  with  the  aid  of  the  Pueblos 
de  Taos,  were  collected  in  front  of  his  dwelling,  striv- 
ing to  gain  admittance.  While  they  were  effecting 
an  entrance,  he,  with  an  axe,  cut  through  an  adobe 
wall  into  another  house.  The  wife  of  the  occupant, 
a  clever,  though  thriftless,  Canadian,  heard  him,  and 
with  all  her  strength  rendered  him  assistance,  though 
she  was  a  Mexican.  He  retreated  to  a  room,  but 
seeing  no  way  of  escaping  from  the  infuriated  assail- 
ants who  fired  upon  him  through  a  window,  he  spoke 
to  his  weeping  wife  and  trembling  children  clinging 
to  him  with  all  the  tenacity  of  love  and  despair,  and 
taking  a  paper  from  his  pocket  endeavored  to  write, 
but  fast  losing  strength  he  commended  them  to  God 
and  his  brothers,  and  fell  pierced  by  a  Pueblo's  ball. 
Rushing  in  and  tearing  off  the  gray-haired  scalp, 
the  Indians  bore  it  away  in  triumph." 

Among  the  people  killed  were  Stephen  Lee,  Nar- 
cisse  Beaubien,  and  others. 

When  the  news  of  Governor  Bent's  death  reached 
the  plains  it  created  great  excitement,  for  Charles 
Bent  was  exceedingly  popular  with  white  people  and 
Indians  alike.  The  Cheyennes  proposed  to  send  a 
war-party  to  Taos  and  to  kill  all  the  Mexicans,  but 
William  Bent  would  not  permit  it.  A  party  from 
Bent's  Fort  set  out  for  Taos,  but  on  the  road  were 
met  by  messengers  announcing  that  Colonel  Price 
had  marched  into  Taos  at  the  head  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men  and  had  had  a  fight  with  Mexicans  and 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        147 

Indians  in  which  two  hundred  were  killed,  and  had 
then  bombarded  the  town  and  knocked  down  its  walls. 
A  neighboring  town  was  razed  and  a  large  amount  of 
property  destroyed. 

The  killing  of  the  people  at  Turley's  Ranch,  on  the 
Arroyo  Hondo,  was  a  costly  triumph  to  the  Pueblos. 
Here  were  shut  up  men  who  fought  well  for  their  lives. 

Ruxton  tells  of  the  battle  in  graphic  language: 

"The  massacre  of  Turley  and  his  people,  and  the 
destruction  of  his  mill,  were  not  consummated  without 
considerable  loss  to  the  barbarous  and  cowardly  assail- 
ants. There  were  in  the  house,  at  the  time  of  the 
attack,  eight  white  men,  including  Americans,  French- 
Canadians,  and  one  or  two  Englishmen,  with  plenty  of 
arms  and  ammunition.  Turley  had  been  warned  of 
the  intended  insurrection,  but  had  treated  the  report 
with  indifference  and  neglect,  until  one  morning  a 
man  named  Otterbees,  in  the  employ  of  Turley,  and 
who  had  been  dispatched  to  Santa  Fe  with  several 
mule-loads  of  whiskey  a  few  days  before,  made  his 
appearance  at  the  gate  on  horseback,  and  hastily 
informing  the  inmates  of  the  mill  that  the  New  Mexi- 
cans had  risen  and  massacred  Governor  Bent  and 
other  Americans,  galloped  off.  Even  then  Turley  felt 
assured  that  he  would  not  be  molested,  but,  at  the 
solicitations  of  his  men,  agreed  to  close  the  gate  of 
the  yard  round  which  were  the  buildings  of  a  mill  and 
distillery,  and  make  preparations  for  defence. 

"A   few   hours   after,   a   large   crowd   of  Mexicans 


148  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

and  Pueblo  Indians  made  their  appearance,  all  armed 
with  guns  and  bows  and  arrows,  and  advancing  with 
a  white  flag  summoned  Turley  to  surrender  his 
house  and  the  Americans  in  it,  guaranteeing  that 
his  own  life  should  be  saved,  but  that  every  other 
American  in  the  valley  of  Taos  had  to  be  destroyed; 
that  the  Governor  and  all  the  Americans  at  Fernandez 
and  the  rancho  had  been  killed,  and  that  not  one  was 
to  be  left  alive  in  all  New  Mexico. 

"To  this  summons  Turley  answered  that  he  would 
never  surrender  his  house  nor  his  men,  and  that,  if 
they  wanted  it  or  them,  'they  must  take  them.' 

"The  enemy  then  drew  off,  and,  after  a  short  consul- 
tation, commenced  the  attack.  The  first  day  they 
numbered  about  500,  but  the  crowd  was  hourly  aug- 
mented by  the  arrival  of  parties  of  Indians  from  the 
more  distant  pueblos,  and  of  New  Mexicans  from 
Fernandez,  La  Canada,  and  other  places. 

"The  building  lay  at  the  foot  of  a  gradual  slope 
in  the  sierra,  which  was  covered  with  cedar-bushes. 
In  front  ran  the  stream  of  the  Arroyo  Hondo,  about 
twenty  yards  from  one  side  of  the  square,  and  on 
the  other  side  was  broken  ground,  which  rose  abruptly 
and  formed  the  bank  of  the  ravine.  In  rear  and 
behind  the  still-house  was  some  garden-ground,  inclosed 
by  a  small  fence,  and  into  which  a  small  wicket-gate 
opened  from  the  corral. 

"As  soon  as  the  attack  was  determined  upon,  the 
assailants  broke,  and,  scattering,  concealed  themselves 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        149 

under  the  cover  of  the  rocks  and  bushes  that  sur- 
rounded the  house. 

"From  these  they  kept  up  an  incessant  fire  upon 
every  exposed  portion  of  the  building  where  they  saw 
the  Americans  preparing  for  defence. 

"They,  on  their  parts,  were  not  idle;  not  a  man 
but  was  an  old  mountaineer,  and  each  had  his  trusty 
rifle  with  good  store  of  ammunition.  Wherever  one 
of  the  assailants  exposed  a  hand's  breadth  of  his  per- 
son there  whistled  a  ball  from  an  unerring  barrel. 
The  windows  had  been  blockaded,  loop-holes  being 
left  to  fire  through,  and  through  these  a  lively  fire 
was  maintained.  Already  several  of  the  enemy  had 
bitten  the  dust,  and  parties  were  constantly  seen  bear- 
ing off  the  wounded  up  the  banks  of  the  Canada. 
Darkness  came  on,  and  during  the  night  a  continual 
fire  was  kept  up  on  the  mill,  while  its  defenders,  reserv- 
ing their  ammunition,  kept  their  posts  with  stern 
and  silent  determination.  The  night  was  spent  in 
running  balls,  cutting  patches,  and  completing  the 
defences  of  the  building.  In  the  morning  the  fight 
was  renewed,  and  it  was  found  that  the  Mexicans  had 
effected  a  lodgment  in  a  part  of  the  stables,  which 
were  separated  from  the  other  portions  of  the  build- 
ing, and  between  which  was  an  open  space  of  a  few  feet. 
The  assailants,  during  the  night,  had  sought  to  break 
down  the  wall,  and  thus  enter  the  main  building,  but  the 
strength  of  the  adobes  and  logs  of  which  it  was  com- 
posed resisted  efi'ectually  all  their  attempts. 


150  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

"Those  in  the  stable  seemed  anxious  to  regain  the 
outside,  for  their  position  was  unavailable  as  a  means 
of  annoyance  to  the  besieged,  and  several  had  darted 
across  the  narrow  space  which  divided  it  from  the 
other  part  of  the  building,  and  which  slightly  pro- 
jected, and  behind  which  they  were  out  of  the  line  of 
fire.  As  soon,  however,  as  the  attention  of  the  defend- 
ers was  called  to  this  point,  the  first  man  who  attempted 
to  cross,  and  who  happened  to  be  a  Pueblo  chief,  was 
dropped  on  the  instant  and  fell  dead  in  the  center 
of  the  intervening  space.  It  appeared  an  object  to 
recover  the  body,  for  an  Indian  immediately  dashed 
out  to  the  fallen  chief  and  attempted  to  drag  him 
within  the  cover  of  the  wall.  The  rifle  which  covered 
the  spot  again  poured  forth  its  deadly  contents,  and 
the  Indian,  springing  into  the  air,  fell  over  the  body 
of  his  chief,  struck  to  the  heart.  Another  and  another 
met  with  a  similar  fate,  and  at  last  three  rushed  at 
once  to  the  spot,  and,  seizing  the  body  by  the  legs  and 
head,  had  already  lifted  it  from  the  ground,  when 
three  puff's  of  smoke  blew  from  the  barricaded  window, 
followed  by  the  sharp  cracks  of  as  many  rifles,  and  the 
three  daring  Indians  added  their  number  to  the  pile  of 
corses  which  now  covered  the  body  of  the  dead  chief. 

"As  yet  the  besieged  had  met  with  no  casualties; 
but  after  the  fall  of  the  seven  Indians,  in  the  manner 
above  described,  the  whole  body  of  assailants,  with 
a  shout  of  rage,  poured  in  a  rattling  volley,  and  two 
of  the  defenders  of  the  mill  fell  mortally  wounded. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money         151 

One,  shot  through  the  loins,  suffered  great  agony, 
and  was  removed  to  the  still-house,  where  he  was 
laid  upon  a  large  pile  of  grain,  as  being  the  softest 
bed  to  be  found. 

"In  the  middle  of  the  day  the  assailants  renewed 
the  attack  more  fiercely  than  before,  their  baffled 
attempts  adding  to  their  furious  rage.  The  little  garri- 
son bravely  stood  to  the  defence  of  the  mill,  never 
throwing  away  a  shot,  but  firing  coolly,  and  only 
when  a  fair  mark  was  presented  to  their  unerring 
aim.  Their  ammunition,  however,  was  fast  faihng, 
and  to  add  to  the  danger  of  their  situation  the  enemy 
set  fire  to  the  mill,  which  blazed  fiercely  and  threat- 
ened destruction  to  the  whole  building.  Twice  they 
succeeded  in  overcoming  the  flames,  and,  taking  advan- 
tage of  their  being  thus  occupied,  the  Mexicans  and 
Indians  charged  into  the  corral,  which  was  full  of 
hogs  and  sheep,  and  vented  their  cowardly  rage  upon 
the  animals,  spearing  and  shooting  all  that  came 
in  their  way.  No  sooner,  however,  were  the  flames 
extinguished  in  one  place,  than  they  broke  out  more 
fiercely  in  another;  and  as  a  successful  defence  was 
perfectly  hopeless,  and  the  numbers  of  the  assailants 
increased  every  moment,  a  council  of  war  was  held 
by  the  survivors  of  the  little  garrison,  when  it  was 
determined,  as  soon  as  night  approached,  that  every- 
one should  attempt  to  escape  as  best  he  might,  and 
in  the  meantime  the  defence  of  the  mill  was  to  be 
continued. 


152  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

*'Just  at  dusk,  Albert  and  another  man  ran  to  the 
wicket-gate,  which  opened  into  a  kind  of  inclosed 
space,  and  in  which  was  a  number  of  armed  Mexicans. 
They  both  rushed  out  at  the  same  moment,  discharging 
their  rifles  full  in  the  faces  of  the  crowd.  Albert  in 
the  confusion  threw  himself  under  the  fence,  whence 
he  saw  his  companion  shot  down  immediately,  and 
heard  his  cries  for  mercy,  mingled  with  shrieks  of  pain 
and  anguish,  as  the  cowards  pierced  him  with  knives 
and  lances.  Lying  without  motion  under  the  fence, 
as  soon  as  it  was  quite  dark  he  crept  over  the  logs 
and  ran  up  the  mountain,  traveled  day  and  night, 
and,  scarcely  stopping  or  resting,  reached  the  Green- 
horn, almost  dead  with  hunger  and  fatigue.  Turley 
himself  succeeded  in  escaping  from  the  mill  and  in 
reaching  the  mountain  unseen.  Here  he  met  a  Mexi- 
can, mounted  on  a  horse,  who  had  been  a  most  inti- 
mate friend  of  the  unfortunate  man  for  many  years. 
To  this  man  Turley  offered  his  watch  (which  was  treble 
its  worth)  for  the  use  of  his  horse,  but  was  refused. 
The  inhuman  wretch,  however,  affected  pity  and 
commiseration  for  the  fugitive,  and  advised  him  to 
go  to  a  certain  place  where  he  would  bring  or  send 
him  assistance;  but  on  reaching  the  mill,  which  was 
now  a  mass  of  fire,  he  immediately  informed  the  Mexi- 
cans of  his  place  of  concealment,  whither  a  large  party 
instantly  proceeded  and  shot  him  to  death. 

"Two  others  escaped  and  reached  Santa  Fe  in 
safety.     The    mill    and    Turley's    house   were    sacked 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        153 

and  gutted,  and  all  his  hard-earned  savings,  which 
were  considerable,  and  concealed  in  gold  about  the 
house,  were  discovered,  and  of  course,  seized  upon, 
by  the  victorious  Mexicans. 

"The  Indians,  however,  met  a  few  days  after  with  a 
severe  retribution.  The  troops  marched  out  of  Santa 
Fe,  attacked  their  pueblo,  and  levelled  it  to  the  ground, 
killing  many  hundreds  of  its  defenders,  and  taking 
many  prisoners,  most  of  whom  were  hanged." 

The  death  of  Charles  Bent,  of  his  brother  Robert 
later  in  the  same  year,  and  of  George  Bent  in  1848, 
left  only  Colonel  William  Bent  to  carry  on  the  business 
of  Bent's  Fort,  and  the  trade  with  Mexico,  together 
with  all  the  other  operations  in  which  he  was  engaged. 
From  this  time  forth  WilUam  Bent  worked  alone. 

Charles  Bent  had  one  son  and  two  daughters. 
Alfred,  the  son,  died  some  years  ago.  One  of  the 
daughters  is  said  to  be  still  living  (1909)  in  Mexico, 
very  old.  Tom  Boggs  married  the  other  daughter. 
She  had  one  son,  Charles  Boggs.  He  and  his  mother 
are  both  believed  to  be  dead. 

Ill 

FORT  ST.  VRAIN  AND  FORT  ADOBE 

In  its  best  days  Bent's  Fort  did  a  business  surpassed 
in  volume  by  only  one  company  in  the  United  States 
— John  Jacob  Astor's  great  American  Fur  Company. 
As  already  stated,  besides  Bent's  Fort  the  Bent  part- 


154  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ners  had  a  post  on  the  South  Platte  at  the  mouth  of 
St.  Vrain's  Fork,  and  one  on  the  Canadian  River, 
called  the  Fort  Adobe,  for  trade  with  tribes  of  Indians 
hostile  to  the  Cheyennes — trade  which  Colonel  Bent, 
of  course,  wished  to  hold. 

St.  Vrain's  Fork  runs  into  the  South  Platte  from  the 
north  and  west,  a  few  miles  south  or  southwest  of 
Greeley,  Colo. 

The  site  of  the  fort,  known  later  and  now  as  Adobe 
Walls,  was  the  scene  of  two  hard  battles  between 
white  men  and  Indians.  The  first  of  these  took  place 
in  1864,  and  was  fought  between  the  Kiowas,  Apaches, 
and  Comanches,  with  a  few  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes, 
who  were  present  chiefly  as  onlookers,  and  a  detach- 
ment of  troops  under  the  command  of  Kit  Carson, 
who  then  bore  a  commission  in  the  United  States  army. 
Carson  had  with  him  a  number  of  Ute  scouts.  The 
fight  was  a  severe  one,  and  Carson,  after  burning  one 
of  the  Kiowa  villages,  was  obliged  to  retreat.  In  that 
battle  the  Indians  fought  bravely,  and  one  of  them  pos- 
sessed a  cavalry  bugle  and  knew  the  various  calls. 
Carson  and  his  officers  generally  acknowledged  that 
they  were  beaten  by  the  Indians,  and  Carson  finally 
withdrew,  the  Indians  saving  most  of  their  property, 
though  they  lost  a  number  of  men.  Among  the  Kiowas 
killed  was  a  young  man  who  wore  a  coat  of  mail. 

At  this  fight  a  spring-wagon  was  found  in  the  posses- 
sion of  the  Indians,  and  its  presence  in  the  Kiowa 
camp    has    often    been   wondered    at.     At   that    time 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        155 

wagons  were  never  used  by  plains  Indians,  whose  only 
vehicle  was  the  travois,  which  consisted  of  two  long 
poles  tied  together  over  the  horses'  withers,  and  drag- 
ging on  the  ground  behind.  Across  these  poles,  be- 
hind the  horses'  hocks,  was  lashed  a  platform,  on  which 
a  considerable  burden  might  be  transported. 

The  late  Robert  M.  Peck,  of  Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  who 
was  a  soldier,  serving  under  Major  Sedgwick,  then  in 
command  of  troops  along  the  Arkansas,  not  long  before 
his  death  told  the  story  of  an  ambulance  presented  to 
one  of  the  Kiowa  chiefs  by  the  quartermaster  of  the 
troops  under  Major  Sedgwick,  which  may  have  been 
this  one.     Mr.  Peck  said: 

"That  was  before  the  Kiowa  war  broke  out  in  1859. 
To'  hau  sen  was  always  friendly  to  the  whites,  and  tried 
to  keep  the  Kiowas  peaceable.  A  small  party  of  them, 
his  immediate  following,  kept  out  of  that  war.  These 
were  mostly  the  old  warriors,  but  the  younger  men, 
who  constituted  a  majority  of  the  tribe,  went  on  the 
warpath  after  Lieut.  George  D.  Bayard,  of  our  regi- 
ment killed  one  of  the  Kiowa  chiefs,  called  Pawnee, 
near  Peacock's  ranch,  on  Walnut  Creek. 

"That  summer  (1859)  we  had  been  camping  along 
the  Arkansas  River,  moving  camp  occasionally  up  or 
down  the  river,  trying  to  keep  Satank  and  his  turbu- 
lent followers  from  beginning  another  outbreak.  Old 
To'  hau  sen  used  frequently  to  come  to  our  camp.  Lieut. 
Mclntyre  wanted  to  get  rid  of  this  old  ambulance, 
which  he  had  long  had   on  his  hands  and  which  in 


156  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

some  of  its  parts  was  nearly  worn  out.  After  inducing 
Major  Sedgwick  to  have  it  condemned  as  unfit  for 
service,  Lieut.  Mclntyre  had  his  blacksmith  fix  it  up 
a  little  and  presented  it  to  the  old  chief.  Mclntyre 
fitted  a  couple  of  sets  of  old  harness  to  a  pair  of 
To'  hau  sen's  ponies  and  had  some  of  the  soldiers 
break  the  animals  to  work  in  the  ambulance.  But 
when  To'  hau  sen  tried  to  drive  the  team,  he  could  not 
learn  to  handle  the  lines.  He  took  the  reins  off  the 
harness  and  had  a  couple  of  Indian  boys  ride  the  horses, 
and  they  generally  went  at  a  gallop.  The  old  chief 
seemed  very  proud  of  the  ambulance." 

The  second  battle  of  the  Adobe  Walls  took  place  in 
June,  1874,  when  the  Kiowas,  Comanches,  and  Chey- 
ennes  made  an  attack  on  some  buffalo-hunters,  who 
had  built  themselves  houses  in  the  shelter  of  the  Adobe 
Walls.  The  attack  on  the  buffalo-hunters  was  made 
in  the  endeavor  to  drive  these  hide-hunters  out  of  the 
buffalo  country,  in  order  to  save  the  buffalo  for  them- 
selves. The  hunters  finally  drove  off  the  Indians 
with  much  loss,  but  soon  afterward  abandoned  their 
camp. 

St.  Vrain's  Fort  and  the  Adobe  Fort  were  abandoned 
between  1840  and  1850,  wheri  the  fur  business  began 
to  decline.  By  this  time  the  beaver  had  begun  to  get 
scarce,  having  been  pretty  thoroughly  trapped  out  of 
many  of  the  mountain  streams,  and  besides  that  the 
silk  hat  had  been  invented,  and  was  rapidly  taking  the 
place  of  the  old  beaver  hat,  and  the  demand  for  beaver 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        157 

skins  was  greatly  reduced.  Now,  the  mountains  were 
full  of  idle  trappers,  and  a  colony  of  these  settled  some 
miles  above  Bent's  Fort,  on  the  site  of  the  present  city 
of  Pueblo,  Col.,  where  they  did  a  little  farming  and 
a  great  deal  of  smuggling  of  liquor  from  Mexico  to  the 
plains  country.  The  stagnation  in  the  beaver  trade, 
of  course,  affected  the  business  of  William  Bent,  who, 
since  the  death  of  his  brother  Charles,  had  not  lessened 
his  activities  in  trading.  At  this  time  his  chief  busi- 
ness was  in  buffalo  robes  and  in  horses.  The  establish- 
ment at  the  fort  was  now  reduced,  and  in  the  early 
fifties  Bent  tried  to  sell  it  to  the  government  for  a 
military  post,  but  faiHng  to  receive  what  he  considered 
a  fair  price  for  his  property,  in  1852  he  laid  large  charges 
of  gunpowder  in  the  buildings  and  blew  the  old  fort 
into  the  air. 

In  the  winter  of  1852-53  he  had  two  trading  houses 
of  logs  among  the  Cheyennes  at  the  Big  Timbers,  and 
in  the  autumn  of  1853  began  to  build  his  new  fort 
of  stone  on  the  north  side  of  the  Arkansas  River,  about 
thirty-eight  miles  below  old  Fort  William,  and  finished 
it  the  same  year.  This  was  the  winter  camp  of  the 
Cheyennes.  At  that  time  the  Big  Timbers  extended 
up  the  river  beyond  the  fort,  and  within  three  miles  of 
the  mouth  of  Purgatoire  River,  but  by  1865  practically 
all  the  timber  had  been  cut  down,  leaving  the  fort 
in  the  midst  of  a  treeless  prairie. 

In  1858  gold  was  discovered  in  the  country  north- 
west of  the  new  fort.     There  was  a  rush  of  gold-seekers 


IS8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

to  the  country  the  following  year,  and  for  some  reason 
WilHam  Bent  decided  to  lease  his  post  to  the  War 
Department.  This  he  did.  A  garrison  was  sent  there. 
It  was  at  first  intended  to  call  the  new  fort  Fort  Faunt- 
leroy,  after  the  colonel  of  the  old  Second  Dragoons, 
but  finally  the  place  was  rechristened  Fort  Wise,  in 
honor  of  the  Governor  of  Virginia.  The  following 
summer,  i860,  the  troops  built  a  stockade  half  a  mile 
above  Bent's  old  stone  buildings.  When  the  Civil 
War  began  in  1861  and  Governor  Wise  joined  the  Con- 
federates, the  post  was  again  renamed;  this  time  Fort 
Lyon,  in  honor  of  General  Lyon,  who  had  been  killed 
not  long  before  at  Wilson's  Creek,  Mo.  In  1866  the 
river  threatened  to  carry  away  the  post,  and  it  was 
moved  twenty  miles  up  the  river. 

Meanwhile  WiHiam  Bent  had  built  a  new  stockade 
on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  in  the  valley  of  Purga- 
toire  Creek,  and  lived  there,  continuing  to  trade  with 
the  Indians.  Kit  Carson  lived  on  the  same  side  of  the 
river,  and  not  far  from  the  Bent  stockade.  Carson 
died  at  Fort  Lyon,  May  23,  1868,  and  his  friend  William 
Bent,  at  his  home.  May  19,  1869.  Ceran  St.  Vrain 
died  October  29,  1870.  The  last  year  of  his  life  was 
spent  at  Taos,  N.  M.,  but  he  died  at  the  home  of 
his  son  Felix,  in  Mora,  N.  M. 

In  1839  Mr.  Farnham  visited  Bent's  Fort,  and  met 
two  of  the  Bent  brothers,  whose  names  he  does  not 
give.  They  were  clad  like  trappers,  in  splendid  deer- 
skin hunting-shirts  and  leggings,  with  long  fringes  on 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        159 

the  outer  seams  of  the  arms  and  legs,  the  shirts  deco- 
rated with  designs  worked  in  colored  porcupine  quills, 
and  on  their  feet  moccasins  covered  with  quill  work 
and  beading. 

This  great  estabhshment,  standing  alone  in  the 
midst  of  a  wilderness,  much  impressed  the  traveller, 
who  not  long  before  had  left  a  region  where  men, 
if  not  crowded  together,  were  at  least  seen  frequently, 
for  he  had  recently  come  from  Peoria,  111.  He  spoke 
of  it  as  a  solitary  abode  of  men  seeking  wealth  in  the 
face  of  hardship  and  danger,  and  declared  that  it 
reared  "its  towers  over  the  uncultivated  wastes  of 
nature  like  an  old  baronial  castle  that  has  withstood 
the  wars  and  desolations  of  centuries."  To  him  the 
Indian  women,  walking  swiftly  about  the  courtyard 
and  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  clad  in  long  deerskin 
dresses  and  bright  moccasins,  were  full  of  interest; 
while  the  naked  children,  with  perfect  forms  and  the 
red  of  the  Saxon  blood  showing  through  the  darker  hue 
of  the  mother  race,  excited  his  enthusiasm.  He  won- 
dered at  the  novel  manners  and  customs  that  he  saw, 
at  the  grave  bourgeois  and  their  clerks  and  traders, 
who,  in  time  of  leisure,  sat  cross-legged  under  a  shade, 
smoking  the  long-stemmed  Indian  stone  pipe,  which 
they  dehberately  passed  from  hand  to  hand,  until  it 
was  smoked  out;  at  the  simple  food — dried  bufFalo 
meat  and  bread  made  from  the  unbolted  wheaten  meal 
from  Taos,  repasts  which  lacked  sweets  and  condiments. 

Here,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  were  gathered  people  from 


i6o  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

the  ends  of  the  earth:  old  trappers  whose  faces  were 
lined  and  leathery  from  long  exposure  to  the  snows  of 
winter  and  the  burning  heats  of  summer;  Indians, 
some  of  whom  were  clad  in  civilized  clothing,  but  re- 
tained the  reserve  and  silence  of  their  race;  Mexican 
servants,  hardly  more  civilized  than  the  Indians;  and 
all  these  seated  on  the  ground,  gathered  around  a 
great  dish  of  dried  meat,  which  constituted  their  only 
food.  The  prairie  men  who  talked  narrated  their  ad- 
ventures in  the  North,  the  West,  the  South,  and  among 
the  mountains,  while  others,  less  given  to  conversation, 
nodded  or  grunted  in  assent  or  comment.  The  talk 
was  of  where  the  buffalo  had  been,  or  would  be;  of  the 
danger  from  hostile  tribes;  of  past  fights,  when  men 
had  been  wounded  and  killed;  and  of  attacks  by  In- 
dians on  hunters  or  traders  who  were  passing  through 
the  country. 

He  describes  the  opening  of  the  gates  on  the  winter's 
morning,  the  cautious  sliding  in  and  out  of  the  Indians, 
whose  tents  stood  around  the  fort,  till  the  court  was 
full  of  people  with  long,  hanging  black  locks  and 
dark,  flashing  watchful  eyes;  the  traders  and  clerks 
busy  at  their  work;  the  patrols  walking  the  battle- 
ments with  loaded  muskets;  the  guards  in  the  bastion, 
standing  with  burning  matches  by  the  carronades; 
and  when  the  sun  set,  the  Indians  retiring  again  to 
their  camp  outside,  to  talk  over  their  newly  purchased 
blankets  and  beads,  and  to  sing  and  drink  and  dance; 
and  finally  the  night  sentinel  on  the  fort  that  treads 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money         i6i 

his  weary  watch  away.  "This,"  he  says,  "presents  a 
tolerable  view  of  this  post  in  the  season  of  business." 

Soon  after  the  construction  of  the  fort  a  brass  can- 
non had  been  purchased  in  St.  Louis  and  brought  out 
for  the  purpose  of  impressing  the  Indians.  It  was  used 
there  for  many  years,  but  in  1846,  when  General  Kearny 
passed  by,  some  enthusiastic  employee  charged  it  with 
too  great  a  load  of  powder,  and  in  saluting  the  General 
it  burst.  Some  time  after  that  an  iron  cannon  was 
brought  from  Santa  Fe,  and  during  the  day  always 
stood  outside  the  big  gate  of  the  fort,  and  was  often 
fired  in  honor  of  some  great  Indian  chief  when  he  came 
into  the  post  with  his  camp.  The  old  brass  cannon  lay 
about  the  post  for  some  time,  and  is  mentioned  by 
Garrard. 

The  passage  of  General  Kearny's  little  army  on  its 
march  into  Mexico  made  a  gala  day  at  Bent's  Fort. 
The  army  had  encamped  nine  miles  below  the  post  to 
complete  its  organization,  for  it  had  come  straggling 
across  the  plains  from  Missouri  in  small  detachments. 
On  the  morning  of  August  2  the  fort  was  filled  to  over- 
flowing with  people:  soldiers  and  ofHcers,  white  trap- 
pers, Indian  trappers,  Mexicans,  Cheyennes,  Arapa- 
hoes,  Kiowas,  and  Indian  women,  the  wives  of  trappers 
from  the  far  away  Columbia  and  St.  Lawrence.  Every 
one  was  busy  talking — a  babel  of  tongues  and  jargons. 
The  employees,  with  their  wives  and  children,  had 
gathered  on  the  flat  roofs  to  witness  the  wonderful 
spectacle,  while  in  a  securely  hidden  nook  Charles  Bent 


i62  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

was  rejoicing  the  souls  of  a  few  of  his  army  friends 
with  the  Icy  contents  of  "a.  pitcher  covered  with  the 
dew  of  promise." 

A  cloud  of  dust  moving  up  the  valley  '*at  the  rate 
of  a  horse  walking  fast"  at  length  announced  the  ap- 
proach of  the  troops.  At  the  head  of  the  column  rode 
General  Kearny,  behind  him  a  company  of  the  old 
First  United  States  Dragoons,  behind  the  dragoons  a 
regiment  of  Missouri  volunteer  cavalry  and  two  bat- 
teries of  volunteer  artillery,  and  of  infantry  but  two 
companies.  It  was  an  army  of  1,700  men,  and  yet  to 
the  Indians  assembled  at  the  fort  it  must  have  seemed 
indeed  an  army,  for  perhaps  few  of  them  had  ever 
dreamed  that  there  were  half  as  many  men  in  the  whole 
''white  tribe."  The  column  drew  near  the  fort, 
swinging  to  the  left,  forded  the  river  to  the  Mexican 
bank,  turned  again  up  the  valley,  and  went  on  its  way, 
a  part  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  a  part  to  California,  and 
a  part  only  to  Santa  Fe,  whence  but  a  few  months 
later  they  would  march  to  avenge  the  murder  of 
Charles  Bent,  now  doling  out  mint-juleps  to  the  loiter- 
ing officers  in  the  little  room  upstairs  in  the  fort. 

IV 

KIT  CARSON,  HUNTER 

There  were  two  or  three  employees  at  the  fort 
whose  labors  never  ceased.  These  were  the  hunt- 
ers who  were  obliged  constantly  to  provide  meat  for 


GENERAL    S.    W.    KEARNY 

From  an  original  daguerreotype 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        163 

the  employees.  Though  the  number  of  these  varied, 
there  might  be  from  sixty  to  a  hundred  men  employed 
at  the  fort,  and  many  of  these  had  famihes,  so  that 
the  population  was  considerable. 

v..  For  a  number  of  years  the  principal  hunter  for  the 
fort  was  Kit  Carson,  who  was  often  assisted  by  a  Mex- 
ican or  two,  though  in  times  when  work  was  slack  many 
of  the  traders,  trappers,  employees,  and  teamsters  de- 
voted themselves  to  hunting.  Often  game  could  be 
killed  within  sight  of  the  post,  but  at  other  times  it 
was  necessary  for  the  hunter  to  take  with  him  a  wagon 
or  pack-animals,  for  he  might  be  obHged  to  go  several 
days'  journey  before  securing  the  necessary  food.  It 
was  the  duty  of  Carson  and  his  assistants  to  provide 
meat  for  the  whole  post.  It  was  here  that  in  1843 
Carson  was  married  to  a  Mexican  girl. 

Though,  as  already  suggested,  difficulties  sometimes 
occurred  with  the  Indians,  these  troubles  were  very 
rare;  yet  the  vigilance  of  the  garrison,  drilled  Into  them 
from  earliest  times  by  William  Bent,  never  relaxed. 

The  animals  belonging  to  the  fort  were  a  constant 
temptation  to  the  Indians.  The  fort  stood  on  the  open 
plain  by  the  riverside,  and  there  was  an  abundance  of 
good  grass  close  at  hand,  so  that  the  herd  could  be 
grazed  within  sight  of  the  walls.  Even  so,  however, 
the  Indians  occasionally  swept  off  the  stock,  as  in  1839, 
when  a  party  of  Comanches  hid  in  the  bushes  on  the 
river-bank,  ran  off  every  hoof  of  stock  belonging  to  the 
post,  and  killed  the  Mexican  herder. 


164  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Farnham  while  there  heard  this  account  of  the  event: 
"About  the  middle  of  June,  1839,  a  band  of  sixty  of 
them  [Comanches]  under  cover  of  night  crossed  the 
river  and  concealed  themselves  among  the  bushes  that 
grow  thickly  on  the  bank  near  the  place  where  the 
animals  of  the  establishment  feed  during  the  day.  No 
sentinel  being  on  duty  at  the  time,  their  presence  was 
unobserved:  and  when  morning  came  the  Mexican 
horse  guard  mounted  his  horse,  and  with  the  noise 
and  shouting  usual  with  that  class  of  servants  when  so 
employed,  rushed  his  charge  out  of  the  fort;  and  riding 
rapidly  from  side  to  side  of  the  rear  of  the  band,  urged 
them  on  and  soon  had  them  nibbling  the  short  dry 
grass  in  a  little  vale  within  grape  shot  distance  of  the 
guns  of  the  bastion.  It  is  customary  for  a  guard  of 
animals  about  these  trading-posts  to  take  his  station 
beyond  his  charge;  and  if  they  stray  from  each  other, 
or  attempt  to  stroll  too  far,  he  drives  them  together, 
and  thus  keeps  them  in  the  best  possible  situation  to  be 
driven  hastily  to  the  corral,  should  the  Indians,  or  other 
evil  persons,  swoop  down  upon  them.  And  as  there  is 
constant  danger  of  this,  his  horse  is  held  by  a  long  rope, 
and  grazes  around  him,  that  he  may  be  mounted  quickly 
at  the  first  alarm  for  a  retreat  within  the  walls.  The 
faithful  guard  at  Bent's,  on  the  morning  of  the  disaster 
I  am  relating,  had  dismounted  after  driving  out  his 
animals,  and  sat  upon  the  ground,  watching  with  the 
greatest  fidelity  for  every  call  of  duty;  when  these  50 
or  60  Indians   sprang   from  their   hiding  places,    ran 


KIT    CARSON 

from  the  painting  in  the  Capitol  at  Denver,  Colorado 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        165 

upon  the  animals,  yeUing  horribly,  and  attempted  to 
drive  them  across  the  river.  The  guard,  however, 
nothing  daunted,  mounted  quickly,  and  drove  his  horse 
at  full  speed  among  them.  The  mules  and  horses 
hearing  his  voice  amidst  the  frightening  yells  of  the 
savages,  immediately  started  at  a  lively  pace  for  the 
fort;  but  the  Indians  were  on  all  sides,  and  bewildered 
them.  The  guard  still  pressed  them  onward,  and 
called  for  help;  and  on  they  rushed,  despite  the  efforts 
of  the  Indians  to  the  contrary.  The  battlements  were 
covered  with  men.  They  shouted  encouragement  to 
the  brave  guard — 'Onward,  onward,'  and  the  injunc- 
tion was  obeyed.  He  spurred  his  horse  to  his  greatest 
speed  from  side  to  side  and  whipped  the  hindermost  of 
the  band  with  his  leading  rope.  He  had  saved  every 
animal:  he  was  within  20  yards  of  the  open  gate:  he 
fell:  three  arrows  from  the  bows  of  the  Cumanches 
had  cloven  his  heart,  and,  relieved  of  him,  the  lords  of 
the  quiver  gathered  their  prey,  and  drove  them  to  the 
borders  of  Texas,  without  injury  to  life  or  limb.  I  saw 
this  faithful  guard's  grave.'  He  had  been  buried  a  few 
days.  The  wolves  had  been  digging  into  it.  Thus 
40  or  50  mules  and  horses  and  their  best  servant's 
life  were  lost  to  the  Messrs.  Bents  in  a  single  day." 

Long  before  this,  in  183 1,  when  the  fort  was  still 
unfinished,  Carson  with  twelve  white  employees  went 
down  the  river  to  the  Big  Timbers  to  cut  logs  for  use 
in  the  construction  work.  He  had  all  the  horses  and 
mules  belonging  to  the  post  with  him,  and  while  he 


1 66  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

and  his  men  were  at  work,  a  party  of  sixty  Crows  crept 
up  close  to  them,  and  coming  out  of  the  brush  and 
timber  drove  off  the  herd.  Carson  and  his  men,  all 
on  foot,  followed  the  Crows  across  the  open  prairie. 
With  them  were  two  mounted  Cheyenne  warriors,  who 
had  been  visiting  the  camp  when  the  Crows  made  their 
attack,  but  who  luckily  had  both  their  ponies  by  them, 
and  thus  saved  them.  The  Crows  had  not  gone  many 
miles  before  they  halted,  and  camped  in  a  thicket  on  the 
margin  of  a  little  stream,  thinking  that  a  party  of 
twelve  men  would  not  dare  to  follow  them  on  foot; 
therefore,  when  they  beheld  Carson  and  his  men  com- 
ing on  their  trail  they  were  greatly  astonished.  They 
left  the  stolen  animals  behind  them,  and  came  boldly 
out  on  the  open  prairie  to  annihilate  the  venturesome 
white  men,  but  all  of  Carson's  party  had  excellent 
rifles  and  one  or  two  pistols  apiece.  Carson  used  to 
tell  how  surprised  those  Crows  were  when  they  charged 
down  upon  his  men  and  were  met  by  a  stunning  volley. 
They  turned  and  made  for  the  thicket,  the  whites  fol- 
lowing them  at  a  run.  Into  the  thicket  went  the  Crows 
and  in  after  them  tumbled  Carson  and  his  men.  Some 
spirited  bushwhacking  ensued,  then  out  at  the  far  edge 
of  the  thicket  came  the  Crows,  with  Carson  and  his 
men  still  after  them.  Meantime,  when  the  Crows  had 
come  out  to  charge  the  whites,  the  two  mounted  Chey- 
ennes  had  quietly  slipped  round  in  the  rear  and  run 
off  all  the  captured  horses,  so  now  Carson's  men 
mounted  and  rode  exultingly  back  to  their  camp,  while 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money         167 

the  discomfited  Crows  plodded  on  homeward,  nurs- 
ing their  wounds. 

In  the  years  before  the  great  peace  was  made  be- 
tween the  Kiowas  and  Comanches,  and  the  Cheyennes 
and  Arapahoes,  the  home  country  of  the  Southern 
Cheyennes  la}^  chiefly  between  the  Arkansas  and  the 
South  Platte  Rivers.  In  August  many  of  them  used  to 
go  east  as  far  as  the  valley  of  the  Repubhcan,  for  the 
purpose  of  gathering  winter  supplies  of  choke-cherries 
and  plums.  In  the  autumn  the  Suhtai  and  the  Hill 
people — His'si-o-me'ta-ne — went  up  west  into  the  foot- 
hills of  the  mountains  to  kill  mule-deer,  which  were 
plenty  there,  and  at  that  season  fat.  All  the  different 
bands  of  Cheyennes  used  to  make  annual  trips  to  the 
mountains  for  the  purpose  of  securing  lodge-poles.  A 
cedar  which  grew  there  was  also  much  employed  in  the 
manufacture  of  bows. 

At  this  time  the  range  of  the  Kiowas  was  from  the 
Cimarron  south  to  the  Red  River  of  Texas,  on  the 
ridge  of  the  Staked  Plains.  They  kept  south  in  order 
to  avoid,  so  far  as  possible,  the  raiding  parties  of  Chey- 
ennes and  Arapahoes,  who  were  constantly  trying  to 
take  horses  from  them.  In  those  days — and  still  earlier 
— the  Kiowas  used  to  make  frequent  trips  north  to  visit 
their  old  friends  and  neighbors,  the  Crows,  but  when 
they  did  this  they  kept  away  to  the  westward,  close 
to  the  mountains,  in  order  to  avoid  the  camps  of  the 
Cheyennes.  Nevertheless,  such  travelling  parties  were 
occasionall}^  met  by  the  Cheyennes  or  Arapahoes,  and 


1 68  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

fights  occurred.  It  was  in  such  a  fight  that  an  old 
woman,  now  (191 2)  known  as  White  Cow  Woman,  or 
the  Kiowa  Woman,  was  captured.  She  was  a  white 
child,  taken  from  the  whites  by  the  Klowas  when  two 
or  three  years  of  age,  and  a  year  or  two  later  captured 
from  the  Kiowas  as  stated  by  the  Cheyennes.  She  is 
now  supposed  to  be  seventy-six  or  seventy-seven  years 
old.  The  fight  when  she  was  captured  took  place  in 
1835,  or  three  years  before  the  great  fight  on  Wolf 
Creek. 

Before  the  Mexican  War  the  Arkansas  was  the 
boundary  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico,  and 
Bent's  Fort  was,  therefore,  on  the  extreme  border  of 
the  United  States.  In  those  days  the  Indians  used  to 
make  raids  into  Mexican  territory,  sweeping  off  great 
herds  of  horses  and  mules.  They  also  captured  many 
Mexicans,  and  many  a  Comanche  and  Kiowa  warrior 
owned  two  or  three  peons,  whom  he  kept  to  herd  his 
horses  for  him. 

These  peons  were  often  badly  treated  by  their  Mex- 
ican masters,  and  after  they  had  been  for  a  short  time 
with  the  Indians,  they  liked  the  new  life  so  well  that 
they  would  not  return  to  their  old  masters,  even  If  they 
had  the  opportunity.  Many  of  these  men  led  the  war- 
riors in  raids  into  Mexico.  They  kept  In  communica- 
tion with  peons  In  the  Mexican  settlements,  and  from 
them  learned  just  which  places  were  unguarded,  where 
the  best  herds  and  most  plunder  were  to  be  secured,  and 
where  the  Mexican  troops  were  stationed.     The  peon 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        169 

then  led  his  war-party  to  the  locality  selected,  and  they 
ran  off  the  herds,  burned  ranches,  and  carried  off 
plunder  and  peon  women  and  men.  Some  of  the  peons 
captured  became  chiefs  in  the  tribes  that  had  taken 
them.  In  the  old  days,  Colonel  Bent  sometimes  pur- 
chased these  Mexican  peons  from  the  Kiowas.  In  1908 
one  of  these  peons  was  still  living  at  the  Kiowa  Agency, 
eighty-two  years  old. 

Carson  was  employed  by  the  Bents  as  hunter  for 
many  years.  Sometimes  he  remained  at  the  fort,  sup- 
plying the  table  with  meat,  at  other  times  he  went  with 
the  wagon-train  to  Missouri,  acting  as  hunter  for  the 
outfit.  The  following  advertisement  from  the  Missouri 
Intelligencer  marked  Carson's  first  appearance  on  the 
page  of  history; 

"Notice:  To  whom  it  may  concern:  That  Chris- 
topher Carson,  a  boy  about  sixteen  years,  small  of  his 
age,  but  thickset,  light  hair,  ran  away  from  the  sub- 
scriber, living  in  Franklin,  Howard  Co.,  Mo,,  to  whom 
he  had  been  bound  to  learn  the  saddler's  trade,  on  or 
about  the  first  day  of  September  last.  He  is  supposed 
to  have  made  his  way  toward  the  upper  part  of  the 
State.  All  persons  are  notified  not  to  harbor,  support 
or  subsist  said  boy  under  penalty  of  the  law.  One 
cent  reward  will  be  given  to  any  person  who  will  bring 
back  said  boy. 

"David  Workman. 

"Franklin,  Oct.  6,  1826." 


1 70  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

This  runaway  boy  joined  the  Santa  Fe  caravan  of 
Charles  Bent,  and  from  that  time  on  for  a  number  of 
years  was  employed  by  Bent  and  St.  Vrain.  From 
1834  to  1842,  he  was  constantly  at  the  fort.  He  mar- 
ried a  daughter  of  Charles  Beaubien,  of  Taos,  who, 
with  his  son,  Narcisse  Beaubien,  was  killed  at  the  time 
of  the  Pueblo  massacre  in  January,  1847. 

During  the  Civil  War,  Carson  received  a  commission 
in  the  militia  of  New  Mexico  or  Colorado,  and  rose  to 
the  rank  of  colonel  and  brevet  brigadier-general. 


LIFE  AT  BENT'S  FORT 

Bent's  Old  Fort  was  a  stopping-place  for  all 
travellers  on  the  Santa  Fe  trail,  and  visitors  often 
remained  there  for  weeks  at  a  time,  for  Colonel 
Bent  kept  open  house.  On  holidays,  such  as  Christ- 
mas and  the  Fourth  of  July,  if  any  number  of  people 
were  there,  they  often  had  balls  or  dances,  in  which 
trappers,  travellers,  Indians,  Indian  women,  and  Mexi- 
can women  all  took  part.  Employed  about  the  post 
there  was  always  a  Frenchman  or  two  who  could 
play  the  violin  and  guitar.  On  one  occasion  Frank  P. 
Blair,^  then  twenty-three  years  old,  afterward  a  gen- 
eral in  the  Union  army,  and  at  one  time  a  vice-presi- 
dential candidate,  played  the  banjo  all  night  at  a  ball 
at  the  fort. 

'  Appointed  Attorney-general  of   New   Mexico   by   General   Kearny  in 
1846.     Took  an  active  part  on  the  side  of  the  Union  in  Missouri  in  1860-1. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        171 

Just  before  each  Fourth  of  July,  a  party  was  always 
sent  up  into  the  mountains  on  the  Purgatoire  River  to 
gather  wild  mint  for  mint-juleps  to  be  drunk  in  honor 
of  the  day.  For  the  brewing  of  these,  ice  from  the  ice- 
house was  used.  In  those  days  this  drink  was  called 
"hail  storm." 

The  employees  at  the  fort  were  divided  into  classes, 
to  each  of  which  special  duties  were  assigned.  Cer- 
tain men  remained  always  at  the  post  guarding  it, 
trading  with  Indians  and  trappers,  and  keeping  the 
books.  These  we  may  call  clerks,  or  store-keepers,  and 
mechanics.  Another  group  took  care  of  the  live-stock, 
herding  and  caring  for  the  horses  and  mules,  while  still 
others  had  charge  of  the  wagon-train  that  hauled  the 
furs  to  the  States,  and  brought  back  new  goods  to  the 
fort.  Other  men,  led  by  veteran  traders,  went  to  trade 
in  the  Indian  camps  at  a  distance. 

Excepting  in  summer,  when  the  trains  were  absent 
on  their  way  to  St.  Louis,  the  population  of  the  fort 
was  large.  There  were  traders,  clerks,  trappers,  hunt- 
ers, teamsters,  herders,  and  laborers,  and  these  were 
of  as  many  races  as  there  were  trades.  The  clerks, 
traders,  and  trappers  were  chiefly  Americans,  the  hunt- 
ers and  laborers  might  be  white  men,  Mexicans,  or 
Frenchmen.  Some  of  the  Delawares  and  Shawnees — 
of  whom  Black  Beaver  was  one  of  the  most  famous — 
were  hunters  and  trappers,  while  others  of  their  race 
were  teamsters,  and  went  back  and  forth  with  the 
trains  between  Westport  and  Fort  William.     The  herd- 


172  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ers  were  chiefly  Mexicans,  as  were  also  some  of  the 
laborers,  while  the  cook  of  the  bourgeois  was  a  negro. 
Almost  all  these  people  had  taken  Indian  wives  from 
one  tribe  or  another,  and  the  fort  was  plentifully  peo- 
pled with  women  and  children,  as  well  as  with  men. 

During  the  summer  season  matters  were  often  very 
quiet  about  the  fort.  In  April,  just  about  the  time 
that  the  Indians  set  out  on  their  summer  buffalo-hunt, 
the  train  started  for  St.  Louis.  It  was  under  the  per- 
sonal conduct  of  Colonel  Bent,  but  in  charge  of  a 
wagon-master,  who  was  responsible  for  everything.  It 
was  loaded  with  robes.  With  the  train  went  most  of 
the  teamsters  and  herders,  together  with  some  of  the 
laborers.  The  journey  was  to  last  nearly  six  months. 
Each  heavy  wagon  was  drawn  by  six  yoke  of  oxen, 
driven  by  a  teamster,  who  might  be  a  white  man  or  a 
Delaware  or  a  Shawnee.  With  the  train  went  great 
herds  of  horses  to  be  sold  when  the  settlements  were 
reached.  Agent  Fitzpatrick  says  that  the  Cheyennes 
moved  with  the  train  as  far  as  Pawnee  Fork,  and  then 
scattered  on  their  hunt. 

Travel  was  slow,  for  the  teams  made  but  ten  or 
twelve  miles  a  day.  On  each  trip  they  camped  at 
about  the  same  places,  and  to  the  men  who  accompanied 
the  train  the  route  was  as  well  known  as  is  the  main 
street  to  the  people  of  a  small  town.  When  camp  was 
reached  at  night  the  wagons  were  corralled,  the  bulls 
freed  from  their  yokes,  and,  in  charge  of  the  night  herd- 
ers, who  during  the  day  had  been  sleeping  in  the  wagons, 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money         173 

were  driven  off  to  the  best  grass  and  there  fed  and 
rested  until  morning,  when  they  were  driven  back  to 
the  corral  to  be  turned  over  to  the  teamsters.  The 
horse  herd  was  taken  ofF  in  another  direction,  and  held 
during  the  night  by  the  horse  night  herders.  Within 
the  great  corral  of  wagons  the  fires  were  kindled,  and 
the  mess  cooks  prepared  the  simple  meal  of  bread, 
already  cooked,  and  coffee. 

At  daylight  in  the  morning  the  oxen  were  brought 
in  and  yoked,  the  blankets  tied  up  and  thrown  into  the 
wagons,  and  long  before  the  sun  appeared  the  train 
was  in  motion.  Travel  was  kept  up  until  ten  or  eleven 
o'clock,  depending  on  the  weather.  If  it  was  hot  they 
stopped  earlier;  if  cool,  they  travelled  longer.  Then 
camp  was  made,  the  wagons  were  again  corralled,  the 
herds  turned  out,  and  the  principal  meal  of  the  day, 
which  might  be  called  breakfast  or  dinner,  was  pre- 
pared. Perhaps  during  the  morning  the  hunters  had 
killed  buffalo  or  antelope,  and  this  with  bread  satisfied 
the  keen  appetites  of  the  men.  If  fresh  meat  had  not 
been  killed,  there  was  always  an  abundance  of  dried 
meat,  which  every  one  liked.  At  two  or  three  o'clock 
the  herds  were  again  brought  in,  and  the  train  was  set 
in  motion,  the  journey  continuing  until  dark  or  after. 
So  the  quiet  routine  of  the  march  was  kept  up  until 
the  settlements  were  reached. 

The  whole  train  was  in  charge  of  the  wagon-master, 
who  was  its  absolute  governing  head.  He  fixed  the 
length  of  the  march,  the  time  for  starting  and  halting. 


174  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

If  a  difficult  stream  was  to  be  crossed,  he  rode  ahead 
of  the  train  and  directed  the  crossing  of  the  first  team, 
and  then  of  all  the  others,  not  leaving  the  place  until 
the  difficulty  had  been  wholly  overcome.  Besides 
looking  after  a  multitude  of  details,  such  as  the  shoeing 
of  the  oxen,  the  greasing  of  the  wagons,  which  took 
place  every  two  or  three  days,  and  the  condition  of  the 
animals  in  the  yokes,  he  also  issued  rations  to  the  men, 
and  was,  in  fact,  the  fountain  of  all  authority.  With 
the  cavalyard  ^  were  always  driven  a  number  of  loose 
work-oxen,  and  if  an  animal  in  the  yoke  was  injured, 
or  became  lame  or  footsore,  it  was  turned  into  the  herd 
and  replaced  by  a  fresh  ox. 

When  the  axles  of  the  wagons  were  to  be  greased, 
the  wheels  were  lifted  from  the  ground  by  a  very  long 
lever,  on  the  end  of  which  several  men  threw  them- 
selves to  raise  the  wagon,  so  that  the  wheel  could  be 
taken  off.  If  one  of  the  teamsters  became  sick  or  dis- 
abled, it  was  customary  for  the  wagon-master  to  drive 
the  leading  team. 

The  train  often  consisted  of  from  twenty  to  thirty 
wagons,  most  of  them — in  later  years — laden  with  bales 
of  buffalo  robes  on  the  way  to  the  settlements,  and  re- 
turned full  of  goods.  The  front  end  of  the  wagon  in- 
clined somewhat  forward,  and  about  half-way  down 
the  front  was  a  box,  secured  by  a  lock,  in  which  the 
teamster  kept  the  spare  keys  for  his  ox-bows,  various 

*  Sp.  caballada:  literally,  a  herd  of  horses;  more  broadly,  a  herd  of  horses 
and  work-cattle.     Also  pronounced  cdvaya,  and  spelled  in  a  variety  of  ways. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        175 

other  tools,  and  some  of  his  own  small  personal  be- 
longings. 

Two  hunters,  one  a  white  man,  and  the  other  a  Mex- 
ican, or  Indian,  accompanied  the  train,  and  each  morn- 
ing, as  soon  as  it  was  ready  to  start,  they  set  out  to  kill 
game,  and  usually  when  the  train  came  to  the  appointed 
camping-place,  they  were  found  there  resting  in  the 
shade,  with  a  load  of  meat.  Sometimes,  if  they  killed 
an  animal  close  to  the  road,  they  loaded  it  on  a  horse 
and  brought  it  back  to  the  trail,  so  that  it  could  be 
thrown  into  a  wagon  when  the  train  passed. 

The  Shawnees  and  Delawares  were  great  hunters, 
and  almost  always  when  the  train  stopped  for  noon, 
and  their  cattle  had  been  turned  out  and  the  meal 
eaten,  these  men  would  be  seen  striding  off  over  the 
prairie,  each  with  a  long  rifle  over  his  shoulder. 

In  the  train  there  were  several  messes.  Colonel  Bent 
and  any  member  of  his  family,  or  visitor,  messed  to- 
gether, the  white  teamsters  and  the  Mexicans  also 
messed  together,  while  the  Delawares  and  Shawnees,  by 
preference,  messed  by  themselves.  Each  man  had  his 
own  quart  cup  and  plate,  and  carried  his  own  knife  in 
its  sheath.  Forks  or  spoons  were  not  known.  Each 
man  marked  his  own  plate  and  cup,  usually  by  rudely 
scratching  his  initials  or  mark  on  it,  and  when  he  had 
finished  using  it,  he  washed  or  cleansed  it  himself. 
Each  mess  chose  its  cook  from  among  its  members. 
The  food  eaten  by  these  travellers,  though  simple,  was 
wholesome  and  abundant.     Meat  was  the  staple;  but 


176  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

they  also  had  bread  and  abundant  coffee,  and  occa- 
sionally boiled  dried  apples  and  rice.  Usually  there 
was  sugar,  though  sometimes  they  had  to  depend  on  the 
old-fashioned  **long  sweetening";  that  Is,  New  Orleans 
molasses,  which  was  imported  in  hogsheads  for  trade 
with  the  Indians. 

The  train  was  occasionally  attacked  by  Indians,  but 
they  were  always  beaten  off.  In  1847  the  Comanches 
attacked  the  wagons  at  Pawnee  Fork,  but  they  were 
repulsed,  and  Red  Sleeves,  their  chief,  was  killed.  The 
fork  is  called  by  the  Indians  Red  Sleeves'  Creek,  in 
remembrance  of  this  affair.  Charles  Hallock,  who 
made  the  journey  with  one  of  these  trains,  wrote  an 
account  of  an  attack  by  Comanches,  which  was  printed 
in  Harper's  Magazine,  in  1859. 

After  the  return  to  the  post  in  autumn,  the  cattle 
were  turned  out  into  the  herd,  wagons  ranged  around 
outside  of  the  corral,  while  the  yokes  and  chains  for 
each  bull  team  were  cared  for  by  the  driver  of  the  team. 
Usually  they  were  carried  into  the  fort  and  piled  up  in 
some  shady  place.  The  keys  for  the  bows  were  tied 
to  the  yokes,  and  the  chains  lay  close  to  them. 

Rarely  a  few  ox-bows  were  lost  by  being  taken  away 
by  the  Indians,  who  greatly  coveted  the  hickory  wood 
for  the  manufacture  of  bows.  There  was  no  hickory 
nearer  than  Council  Grove,  and  if  an  Indian  could  get 
hold  of  an  ox-bow,  he  steamed  and  straightened  it,  and 
from  it  made  a  useful  bow. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        177 

Back  at  the  fort  only  a  few  men  were  left;  the  clerks, 
a  trader  or  two,  and  a  few  laborers  and  herders.  There 
were  frequent  calls  there  by  Indians,  chiefly  war-parties 
stopping  to  secure  supplies  of  arms  and  ammunition. 
Hunting  parties  occasionally  called  to  procure  ordinary 
goods.  Parties  of  white  travellers  came  and  stayed  for 
a  little  while,  and  then  went  on  again.  During  this 
time  especial  precautions  were  taken  against  trouble 
with  the  Indians.  At  night,  the  fort  was  closed  early, 
and  conditions  sometimes  arose  under  which  admission 
to  the  fort  might  be  refused  by  the  trader.  This 
watchfulness,  which  was  never  relaxed,  was  not  caused 
by  any  special  fear  of  Indian  attacks,  but  was  merely 
the  carrying  out  of  those  measures  of  prudence  which 
Colonel  Bent  had  always  practised,  and  which  he  had 
so  thoroughly  inculcated  in  his  men  that  they  had  be- 
come fixed  habits. 

Usually  the  Cheyenne  Indians  were  freely  admitted 
to  the  fort,  and  were  allowed  to  wander  through  it, 
more  or  less  at  will.  They  might  go  up  on  the  roof  and 
into  the  watch-tower,  but  were  warned  by  the  chiefs 
not  to  touch  anything.  They  might  go  about  and  look, 
and,  if  they  wished  to,  ask  questions,  but  they  were  not 
to  take  things  in  their  hands.  Toward  the  close  of  the 
day,  as  the  sun  got  low,  a  chief  or  principal  man  went 
through  the  fort,  and  said  to  the  young  men  who  were 
lounging  here  and  there:  "Now,  soon  these  people  will 
wish  to  close  the  gates  of  this  house,  and  you  had  better 
now  go  out  and  return  to  your  camps."     When  this 


178  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

was  said  the  young  men  always  obeyed,  for  in  those 
days  the  chiefs  had  control  over  their  young  men; 
they  listened  to  what  was  said  to  them  and  obeyed. 

On  one  occasion  a  war-party  of  Shoshoni  came  down 
from  the  mountains  and  visited  Bent's  Fort,  and  in- 
sisted on  coming  in.  The  trader  in  charge,  probably 
Murray,  declined  to  let  them  in,  and  when  they  en- 
deavored to  force  their  way  into  the  post,  he  killed 
one  of  them,  when  the  others  went  away.  The  In- 
dian's body  was  buried  at  some  little  distance  from  the 
fort,  and  his  scalp  was  afterward  given  to  a  war-party 
of  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes. 

In  winter  the  scenes  at  the  fort  were  very  different. 
Now  it  harbored  a  much  larger  population.  All  the 
employees  were  there,  except  a  few  traders  and  team- 
sters and  laborers,  who  might  be  out  visiting  the  differ- 
ent camps,  and  who  were  constantly  going  and  return- 
ing. The  greater  part  of  the  laborers  and  teamsters 
had  little  or  nothing  to  do,  and  spent  most  of  the  winter 
in  idleness,  lounging  about  the  fort,  or  occasionally 
going  out  hunting.  Besides  the  regular  inhabitants 
there  were  many  visitors,  some  of  whom  spent  a  long 
time  at  the  fort.  Hunters  and  trappers  from  the 
mountains,  often  with  their  families,  came  in  to  pur- 
chase goods  for  the  next  summer's  journey,  or  to  visit, 
and  then,  having  supplied  their  wants,  returned  to 
their  mountain  camps.  All  visitors  were  welcome  to 
stay  as  long  as  they  pleased. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        179 

Though  the  fort  was  full  of  Idle  men,  nevertheless 
time  did  not  hang  heavy  on  their  hands.  There  were 
amusements  of  various  sorts,  hunting  parties,  games, 
and  not  infrequent  dances,  in  which  the  moccasined 
trappers,  in  their  fringed,  beaded,  or  porcupine-quilled 
buckskin  garments  swung  merry-faced,  laughing  In- 
dian women  in  the  rough  but  hearty  dances  of  the 
frontier.  To  the  employees  of  the  fort  liquor  was  ever 
dealt  out  with  a  sparing  hand,  and  there  is  no  memory 
of  any  trouble  among  the  people  who  belonged  at  the 
post.  It  was  a  contented  and  cheerful  family  that 
dwelt  within  these  four  adobe  walls. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  persons  at  the  fort, 
after  the  directing  head  who  governed  the  whole  or- 
ganization, were  the  traders,  who  dealt  out  goods  to 
the  Indians  in  the  post,  receiving  their  furs  in  payment, 
and  who  were  sent  off  to  distant  camps  with  loads  of 
trade  goods,  to  gather  from  them  the  robes  which  they 
had  prepared,  or  to  buy  horses  and  mules. 

Of  these  traders  there  were  seven  or  eight,  of  whom 
the  following  are  remembered:  Murray,  an  Irishman 
known  to  the  Indians  as  Pau-e-sih',  Flat  Nose;  Fisher, 
an  American,  No-ma-nl',  Fish;  Hatcher,  a  Kentuckian, 
He-him'ni-ho-nah',  Freckled  Hand;  Thomas  Boggs,  a 
Missourian,  Wohk'  po-hum'.  White  Horse;  John 
Smith,  a  Missourian,  P6-5-om' mats.  Gray  Blanket; 
Kit  Carson,  a  Kentuckian,  Vi-hiu-nis',  Little  Chief,  and 
Charles  Davis,  a  Missourian,  Ho-nih',  Wolf. 

L.  Maxwell,  Wo-wihph'  pai-i-sih',  Big  Nostrils,  was 


i8o  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

the  superintendent  or  foreman  at  the  fort,  but  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  trading.  He  looked  after  the 
herds  and  laborers  and  fort  matters  in  general. 

Murray,  who  was  a  good  hunter  and  trapper,  and  a 
brave  man,  was  one  of  the  two  more  important  men 
among  the  traders.  He  usually  remained  at  the  fort, 
and  was  almost  always  left  in  charge  when  the  train 
went  to  the  States.  Hatcher,  however,  was  probably 
the  best  trader,  and  the  most  valued  of  the  seven. 

Each  of  these  traders  had  especial  friendly  relations 
with  some  particular  tribe  of  Indians,  and  each  was 
naturally  sent  off  to  the  tribe  that  he  knew  best. 
Besides  this,  often  when  villages  of  Indians  came  and 
camped  somewhere  near  the  post,  the  chiefs  would  re- 
quest that  a  particular  man  be  sent  to  their  village  to 
trade.  Sometimes  to  a  very  large  village  two  or  three 
traders  would  be  sent,  the  work  being  more  than  one 
man  could  handle  in  a  short  period  of  time. 

When  it  was  determined  that  a  trader  should  go  out, 
he  and  the  chief  clerk  talked  over  the  trip.  The  trader 
enumerated  the  goods  required,  and  these  were  laid 
out,  charged  to  him,  and  then  packed  for  transporta- 
tion to  the  camp.  If  the  journey  were  over  level 
prairie,  this  transportation  was  by  wagon,  but  if  over 
rough  country  pack-mules  were  used.  If  on  arrival 
at  the  camp  the  trader  found  that  the  trade  was  going 
to  be  large,  and  that  he  required  more  goods,  he  sent 
back  his  wagon,  or  some  of  his  animals,  to  the  post  for 
additional  supplies.     When  he  returned  from  his  trip 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        i8i 


and  turned  in  his  robes,  he  was  credited  with  the  goods 
that  he  had  received.  The  trade  for  robes  ended  in 
the  spring,  and  during  the  summer  the  traders  often 
went  to  different  villages  to  barter  for  horses  and 
mules. 

A  certain  proportion  of  the  trade  with  the  Indians 
was  for  spirits,  but  this  proportion  was  small.  The 
Indians  demanded  liquor,  and  though  Colonel  Bent 
was  strongly  opposed  to  giving  it  to  them,  he  knew 
very  well  that  unless  he  did  something  toward  satisfy- 
ing their  demands,  whiskey  traders  from  Santa  Fe  or 
Taos  might  come  into  the  territory  and  gratify  the 
Indians'  longing  for  drink,  and  at  the  same  time  take 
away  the  trade  from  the  fort.  Two  or  three  times  a 
year,  therefore,  after  many  visits  from  the  chiefs,  ask- 
ing for  liquor,  promising  to  take  charge  of  it  and  see 
to  its  distribution,  and  to  be  responsible  that  payment 
should  be  made  for  it,  a  lot  of  liquor  would  be  sent  out 
to  a  camp,  packed  in  kegs  of  varying  sizes.  A  trader 
coming  into  the  villages  would  deposit  his  load  in  the 
lodge  of  the  chief.  The  Indians  wishing  to  trade  would 
come  to  the  lodge  and  offer  what  they  had  to  trade, 
and  each  would  be  assigned  a  keg  of  a  certain  size, 
sufficient  to  pay  for  the  robes,  horses,  or  mules  that  he 
sold.  Each  Indian  then  tied  a  piece  of  cloth  or  a 
string  to  his  keg,  so  as  to  mark  It  as  his,  and  it  remained 
in  the  chief's  lodge,  unopened  for  the  present.  When 
the  trade  had  been  completed,  the  trader  left  the  vil- 
lage, and  not  until  he  had  gone  some  distance  did  the 


1 82  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

chief  permit  the  Indians  to  take  their  kegs  of  Hquor. 
Sometimes  while  the  traders  were  in  a  camp  trading 
ordinary  goods,  a  party  of  men  from  Taos  or  Santa  Fe 
would  come  into  the  camp  with  whiskey,  and  then  at, 
once  there  would  be  an  end  of  all  legitimate  business 
until  the  Indians  had  become  intoxicated,  drunk  all  the 
spirits,  and  become  sober  again.  No  trader  ever  wished 
to  have  whiskey  in  the  camp  where  he  was  working. 

We  commonly  think  of  the  trade  at  one  of  these  old 
forts  as  being  wholly  for  furs,  but  at  Bent's  Fort  this 
was  not  the  case.  In  later  times  furs — that  is  to  say, 
buffalo  robes — were  indeed  a  chief  article  of  trade,  and 
were  carried  back  to  the  States  to  be  sold  there;  but  a 
great  trade  also  went  on  in  horses  and  mules,  of  which 
the  Indians  possessed  great  numbers,  and  of  which  they 
were  always  getting  more.  These  horses  and  mules 
were  taken  back  to  the  settlements  and  sold  there,  but 
they  were  also  sold  to  any  one  who  would  buy  them. 
The  cavalyard  was  a  part  of  every  train  which  re- 
turned to  the  States,  the  animals  being  herded  by  Mexi- 
cans and  being  in  charge  of  a  trader,  who  disposed  of 
them  when  they  reached  the  settlements. 

The  Indians  frequently  paid  for  their  goods  in  horses 
and  mules,  but  this  was  not  the  only  source  from  which 
horses  came.  About  1845  William  Bent  sent  his 
brother,  George  Bent,  with  Tom  Boggs  and  Hatcher, 
down  into  Mexico  to  trade  for  horses  and  mules. 
They  brought  back  great  herds,  and  with  them  a  cele- 
brated rider  known  at  the  fort,  and  in  later  years  to 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        183 

all  the  Cheyennes,  as  One-eyed  Juan,  whose  sole  occu- 
pation was  breaking  horses,  a  vocation  which  he  fol- 
lowed until  he  was  too  old  to  get  into  the  saddle.  It 
was  said  of  him  that  when  he  wished  to  show  off  he 
would  put  a  saddle  on  a  wild  horse,  and  placing  a 
Mexican  dollar  in  each  one  of  the  huge  wooden  stir- 
rups, would  mount  the  horse,  and  no  matter  what  the 
horse  might  do,  these  dollars  were  always  found  under 
the  soles  of  the  rider's  feet  when  the  animal  stopped 
bucking. 

While  the  chief  market  at  which  the  horses  and  mules 
were  sold  was  St.  Louis,  yet  on  at  least  one  occasion 
Hatcher  took  a  herd  of  horses  which  had  been  bought 
wild  from  the  Comanches  and  broken  by  the  Mexicans 
at  the  fort  over  to  Taos  and  Santa  Fe,  and  sold  them 
there.  Occasionally  they  sold  good  broken  horses  to 
the  Indians  for  robes. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  a  large  proportion  of 
these  horses  purchased  from  the  Indians,  and  especially 
from  the  Comanches,  were  wild  horses  taken  by  the 
Comanches  from  the  great  herds  which  ran  loose  on 
the  ranches  in  Mexico.  Practically  all  these  horses 
bore  Mexican  brands. 

After  the  emigration  to  California  began,  herds  of 
horses  and  mules  were  sent  up  to  the  emigrant  trail  on 
the  North  Platte  River,  to  be  sold  to  emigrants  on  their 
way  to  California.  On  one  occasion  Hatcher,  with  a 
force  of  Mexican  herders,  was  sent  up  there  in  charge 
of  a  great  herd  of  horses  and  mules,  and  remained  along- 


184  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

side  the  trail  until  he  had  disposed  of  all  his  animals. 
He  carried  back  with  him  the  gold  and  silver  money 
received  for  them  in  leather  panniers,  packed  on  the 
backs  of  animals. 

Before  starting  on  another  similar  trip,  Hatcher  said 
to  Colonel  Bent :  "It  is  useless  to  load  down  our  animals 
with  sugar,  coffee  and  flour,  to  carry  up  there.  We  will 
take  only  enough  to  last  us  to  the  trail,  and  there  we 
can  buy  all  we  need  from  the  emigrants.  Moreover, 
they  have  great  numbers  of  broken-down  horses,  and 
it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  buy  these  for  little  or  nothing, 
and  then  drive  them  back  here  and  let  them  get  rested 
and  fat,  and  then  we  can  take  them  up  there  and  sell 
them  again."  The  wisdom  of  this  was  at  once  appar- 
ent, and  the  suggestion  was  followed  out. 

Important  members  of  the  fort  household  were  Chl- 
pita;  Andrew  Green,  the  bourgeois's  cook;  the  old 
French  tailor,  whose  name  is  forgotten,  and  the  car- 
penter and  the  blacksmith. 

Chipita  was  the  housekeeper  and  laundress,  the 
principal  woman  at  the  post,  and  the  one  who,  on  the 
occasion  of  dances  or  other  festivities,  managed  these 
affairs.  She  was  a  large,  very  good-natured,  and  kindly 
woman,  and  is  said  to  have  been  half  French  and  half 
Mexican.  She  spoke  French  readily.  She  was  mar- 
ried to  one  of  the  employees  of  the  fort. 

Andrew  Green,  the  black  cook,  has  already  been 
spoken  of  as  having  ultimately  been  set  free. 

The  old  French  tailor  had  come  up  from  New  Orleans. 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        185 

He  had  a  shop  In  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  fort,  where  he 
used  to  make  and  repair  clothing  for  the  men.  Much 
of  this  clothing  was  of  buckskin,  which  he  himself 
dressed,  for  he  was  a  good  tanner. 

In  winter  the  teamsters  and  laborers  usually  spent 
their  evenings  in  playing  cards  and  checkers  in  the 
quarters  by  the  light  of  tallow  candles,  the  only  lights 
they  had  to  burn.  These  candles  were  made  at  the 
fort,  Chipita  doing  the  work.  They  were  moulded 
of  buffalo  tallow,  In  old-fashioned  tin  moulds,  perhaps 
a  dozen  In  a  set.  The  work  of  fixing  the  wicks  in 
the  moulds  occupied  considerable  time.  The  tallow 
was  then  melted,  the  refuse  skimmed  from  It,  the  fluid 
grease  poured  into  the  moulds,  and  the  wicks,  which 
hung  from  the  top,  were  cut  off  with  a  pair  of  scissors. 
Then  the  moulds  were  dipped  in  a  barrel  of  water 
standing  by,  to  cool  the  candles,  and  presently  they 
were  quite  hard,  and  could  be  removed  from  the  moulds, 
ready  for  use. 

In  the  winter  Chipita  would  sometimes  vary  the 
monotony  of  the  life  by  getting  up  a  candy-pulling 
frolic,  in  which  the  laborers  and  teamsters  all  took 
part,  and  which  was  more  or  less  a  jollification.  During 
the  afternoon  and  evening  the  black  New  Orleans 
molasses,  which  was  used  in  the  Indian  trade,  was 
boiled,  and  after  supper  the  people  gathered  in  one  of 
the  rooms  and  pulled  the  candy.  Candy  such  as  this 
was  a  great  luxury,  and  was  eagerly  eaten  by  those 
who  could  get  it. 


1 86  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

The  work  of  the  carpenter  and  blacksmith,  whose 
shops  stood  at  the  back  of  the  fort,  was  chiefly  on  the 
wagons,  which  they  kept  in  good  order.  For  them 
winter  was  the  busy  season,  for  it  was  their  duty  to 
have  everything  in  good  order  and  ready  for  the  train 
to  start  out  in  April. 

In  the  store  of  the  fort — presumably  for  sale  to 
travellers  or  for  the  use  of  the  proprietors — were  to  be 
found  such  unusual  luxuries  as  butter-crackers.  Bent's 
water-crackers,  candies  of  various  sorts,  and,  most  re- 
markable of  all,  great  jars  of  preserved  ginger  of  the 
kind  which  fifty  or  sixty  years  ago  used  to  be  brought 
from  China.  Elderly  people  of  the  present  day  can 
remember,  when  they  were  children,  seeing  these  blue 
china  jars,  which  were  carried  by  lines  of  vegetable 
rope  passed  around  the  necks  of  the  jars,  and  can  re- 
member also  how  delicious  this  ginger  was  when  they 
were  treated  to  a  taste  of  it. 

At  the  post  were  some  creatures  which  greatly  as- 
tonished the  Indians.  On  one  of  his  trips  to  St.  Louis 
St.  Vrain  purchased  a  pair  of  goats,  intending  to  have 
them  draw  a  cart  for  some  of  the  children.  On  the 
way  across  the  plains,  however,  one  of  them  was  killed, 
but  the  one  that  survived  lived  at  the  fort  for  some  years 
and  used  to  clamber  all  over  the  walls  and  buildings. 
The  creature  was  a  great  curiosity  to  the  plains  people, 
who  had  never  before  seen  such  an  animal,  and  they 
never  wearied  of  watching  its  climbing  and  its  prome- 
nading along  the  walls  of  the  fort.     As  it  grew  older  it 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        187 

became  cross,  and  seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  scattering 
little  groups  of  Indian  children  and  chasing  them  about. 
The  Southern  Cheyennes  went  but  Httle  into  the  moun- 
tains at  this  time,  and  but  few  of  them  had  ever  seen 
the  mountain  sheep.  If  they  had,  they  would  not  have 
regarded  the  domestic  goat  with  so  much  wonder. 

The  post  was  abundantly  supplied  with  poultry,  for 
pigeons,  chickens,  and  turkeys  had  been  brought  out 
there,  and  bred  and  did  well.  At  one  time  George 
Bent  brought  out  several  peacocks,  whose  gay  plumage 
and  harsh  voices  astonished  and  more  or  less  alarmed 
the  Indians,  who  called  them  thunder  birds,  Nun- 
iim'a-e-vi'kis. 

There  was  no  surgeon  at  the  fort.  Colonel  Bent  doing 
his  own  doctoring.  He  possessed  an  ample  medicine- 
chest,  which  he  replenished  on  his  trips  to  St.  Louis. 
He  had  also  a  number  of  medical  books,  and  no  doubt 
these  and  such  practical  experience  as  came  to  him  with 
the  years  made  him  reasonably  skilful  in  the  rough 
medicine  and  surgery  that  he  practised.  With  the 
train  he  carried  a  small  medicine-chest,  which  occa- 
sionally came  into  play. 

^  For  many  years  Bent's  Fort  was  the  great  and  only 
gathering-place  for  the  Indians  in  the  Southwestern 
plains,  and  at  different  times  there  were  large  companies 
of  them  present  there. 

At  one  time  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  fifty 
lodges  of  Kiowa  Apaches  were  camping  near  the  fort 
on  the  south  side  of  the  river,  and  at  another,  according 


i88  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

to  Thomas  Boggs,  six  or  seven  thousand  Cheyennes 
were  camped  there  at  one  time.  When  the  Kiowas, 
Comanches,  and  Apaches  were  camped  about  the  fort 
the  number  of  Indians  was  very  large.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  prior  to  1849  the  Indians  of  the 
Southwest  had  not  been  appreciably  affected  by  any  of 
the  new  diseases  brought  into  the  country  by  the  whites. 
This  was  largely  due  to  the  forethought  of  William 
Bent,  who,  by  his  action  in  1829,  when  smallpox  was 
raging  at  his  stockade,  protected  the  Cheyennes  and 
Arapahoes  at  least,  and  very  likely  other  Indians,  from 
the  attacks  of  this  dread  disease. 

Shortly  after  the  great  peace  between  the  Cheyennes, 
Arapahoes,  Kiowas,  Comanches,  and  Apaches,  which 
was  made  In  1840,  the  two  great  camps  moved  up  to 
Bent's  Fort,  the  Cheyennes  and  Arapahoes  camping  on 
the  north  side  of  the  river,  the  Kiowas,  Comanches, 
and  Apaches  on  the  south.  It  was  a  great  gathering 
of  Indians,  and  the  feasting,  singing,  dancing,  and 
drumming  were  continuous.  Though  peace  had  just 
been  made,  there  was  danger  that  some  of  the  old  ill 
feeling  that  had  so  long  existed  between  the  tribes  yet 
remained.  Colonel  Bent,  with  his  usual  wisdom, 
warned  his  employees  that  to  these  camps  no  spirits 
whatever  should  be  traded.  He  recognized  that  if  the 
Indians  got  drunk  they  would  very  likely  begin  to 
quarrel  again,  and  a  collision  between  members  of 
tribes  formerly  hostile  might  lead  to  the  breaking  of 
the  newly  made  peace.     This  was  perhaps  the  greatest 


When  Beaver  Skins  Were  Money        189 

gathering  of  the  Indians  that  ever  collected  at  Fort 
WilHam.     How  many  were  there  will  never  be  known. 

Such,  briefly,  is  the  story  of  Bent's  Fort,  the  oldest, 
largest,  and  most  important  of  the  furt  rading  posts  on 
the  great  plains  of  the  United  States.  Unless  some 
manuscript,  the  existence  of  which  is  now  unknown, 
should  hereafter  be  discovered,  it  is  likely  to  be  all 
that  we  shall  ever  know  of  the  place  that  once  held  an 
important  position  in  the  history  of  our  country. 

Bent's  Fort  long  ago  fell  to  ruins,  but  it  has  not  been 
wholly  forgotten.  Up  to  the  year  1868  the  buildings 
were  occupied  as  a  stage  station,  and  a  stopping-place 
for  travellers,  with  a  bar  and  eating-house;  but  soon 
after  that,  when  the  railroad  came  up  the  Arkansas 
River,  and  stage  travel  ceased,  the  old  post  was  aban- 
doned. From  that  time  on,  it  rapidly  disintegrated 
under  the  weather. 

In  the  autumn  of  191 2  I  stood  on  this  historic  spot, 
still  bare  of  grass,  and  marked  on  two  sides  by  remains 
of  the  walls,  in  some  places  a  mere  low  mound,  and  in 
others  a  wall  four  feet  high,  in  which  the  adobe  bricks 
were  still  recognizable.  Here  and  there  were  seen  old 
bits  of  iron,  the  fragment  of  a  rusted  horseshoe,  of  a 
rake,  and  a  bit  of  cast-iron  which  had  been  part  of  a 
stove  and  bore  letters  and  figures  which  could  be  made 
out  as  portions  of  the  words  "St.  Louis,  1859." 

The  land  on  which  the  fort  stood  was  owned  by  a 
public-spirited  citizen,  Mr.  A,  E.  Reynolds,  of  Denver, 
Col.,  and  here  within  the  walls  of  the  old  fort  he  has 


190  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

placed  a  granite  stone  to  mark  its  site  and  to  commem- 
orate its  history.  He  has  given  the  land  over  to  the 
care  of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  to 
be  used  as  a  public  park  for  the  counties  of  Otero  and 
Bent,  Colo. 

William  Bent,  whose  life  was  devoted  to  the  upbuild- 
ing of  the  Southwest,  will  always  be  remembered  as  the 
one  who  placed  on  that  fertile  and  productive  empire 
the  stamp  "settled." 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  RUXTON,  HUNTER 


GEORGE  FREDERICK  RUXTON,  HUNTER 

SOME  time  about  1840  George  Frederick  Ruxton, 
a  young  Englishman,  was  serving  in  Canada  as  an 
officer  in  a  British  regiment.  In  1837,  when  only 
seventeen  years  of  age,  he  had  left  Sandhurst  to  enlist 
as  a  volunteer  in  the  service  of  Spain,  where  he  served 
with  gallantry  and  distinction  in  the  civil  wars  and 
received  from  Queen  Isabella  II  the  cross  of  the  first 
class  of  the  Order  of  San  Fernando.  The  monotony  of 
garrison  duty  in  Canada  soon  palled  on  one  who  had 
taken  part  in  more  stirring  scenes,  and  before  long  he 
resigned  his  commission  in  his  regiment  and  sought  new 
fields  of  adventure. 

He  was  a  man  fond  of  action  and  eager  to  see  new 
things.  His  earliest  project  was  to  cross  Africa,  and 
this  he  attempted,  but  without  success. 

He  next  turned  toward  Mexico  as  a  field  for  adven- 
ture, and  he  has  painted  a  fascinating  picture,  both  of  life 
there  at  the  time  of  the  Mexican  War  and  of  life  in  the 
mountains  to  the  north.  The  two  small  volumes  of  his 
writings  are  now  out  of  print,  but  they  are  well  worth 
reading  by  those  who  desire  to  learn  of  the  early  history 
of  a  country  that  is  now  well  known,  and  which  within 
fifty  years  has  changed  from  a  region  without  popula- 
tion to  one  which  is  a  teeming  hive  of  industry. 

193 


194  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

In  Ruxton's  Adventures  in  Mexico  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains  is  a  singularly  vivid  account  of  the  author's 
journeyings  from  England,  by  way  of  the  Madeira 
Islands,  Barbadoes  and  others  of  the  Antilles,  to  Cuba, 
and  so  to  Vera  Cruz,  more  fully  called  the  Rich  City  of 
the  True  Cross;  or  as  often,  and  quite  aptly — from  the 
plague  of  yellow  fever  which  so  constantly  ravaged  It — 
the  City  of  the  Dead.  From  Vera  Cruz  he  travelled 
north,  passing  through  Mexico,  whose  coast  was  then 
blockaded  by  the  gringoes  of  North  America,  then 
through  the  country  ravaged  by  marauding  Indians, 
and  at  last,  leaving  Chihuahua  and  crossing  by  way  of 
El  Paso  into  New  Mexico,  he  reached  what  is  now  the 
Southwestern  United  States.  Through  this  country  he 
passed — in  winter — north  through  the  mountains,  meet- 
ing the  trappers  and  mountaineers  of  those  days  and  the 
Indians  as  well,  crossed  the  plains,  and  finally  reached 
St.  Louis,  and  from  there  passed  east  to  New  York. 

Although  untrained  in  literature,  Ruxton  was  a  keen 
observer,  and  presented  his  narrative  in  most  attract- 
ive form.  He  saw  the  salient  characteristics  of  the 
places  and  the  people  among  whom  he  was  thrown, 
and  commented  on  them  most  interestingly.  He  gives 
us  a  peculiarly  vivid  picture  of  Mexico  as  it  was  during 
Its  early  days  of  stress  and  strain,  or  from  the  time  of  its 
Independence,  for  within  the  last  twenty-five  years  there 
had  been  not  far  from  two  hundred  and  fifty  revolu- 
tions. This  state  of  things,  as  is  well  known,  con- 
tinued for  a  dozen  years  after  the  Mexican  War,  or 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  195 

until  the  great  Indian  Juarez  became  ruler  of  the 
country  and  put  down  lawlessness  and  revolution  with 
a  strong  hand.  From  his  day  until  the  expulsion  of 
his  great  successor  Porfirio  Diaz  Mexico  was  fortunate 
in  her  rulers. 

Just  after  Ruxton  reached  Vera  Cruz  General  Santa 
Anna,  ex-President  of  Mexico,  reached  the  city,  having 
been  summoned  to  return  after  his  expulsion  of  a  year 
before.  Santa  Anna  was  received  with  some  form  and 
ceremony,  but  with  no  applause;  and  before  he  had 
been  long  ashore  was  cross-examined  by  a  represent- 
ative of  the  people  in  very  positive  fashion,  and  sub- 
mitted meekly  to  the  inquisition. 

It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  Ruxton,  who  had 
been  a  British  soldier,  would  be  blind  to  the  extraor- 
dinary appearance  and  absolute  lack  of  discipHne  of  the 
Mexican  troops,  and  his  description  of  the  soldiers, 
their  equipment,  and  the  preparations  for  the  reception 
of  Santa  Anna  is  interesting.  "The  crack  regiment  of 
the  Mexican  army — el  onze^  the  nth — which  happened 
to  be  in  garrison  at  the  time,  cut  most  prodigious  capers 
in  the  great  plaza  several  times  a  day,  disciplinando — 
drilling  for  the  occasion.  Nothing  can,  by  any  possi- 
bility, be  conceived  more  unlike  a  soldier  than  a  Mexi- 
can miliiar.  The  regular  army  is  composed  entirely  of 
Indians — miserable-looking  pigmies,  whose  grenadiers 
are  five  feet  high.  Vera  Cruz,  being  a  show  place,  and 
jealous  of  its  glory,  generally  contrives  to  put  decent 
clothing,  by  subscription,  on  the  regiment  detailed  to 


196  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

garrison  the  town;  otherwise  clothing  Is  not  consid- 
ered indispensable  to  the  Mexican  soldier.  The  muskets 
of  the  infantry  are  (that  is,  if  they  have  any)  condemned 
Tower  muskets,  turned  out  of  the  British  service  years 
before.  I  have  seen  them  carrying  firelocks  without 
locks,  and  others  with  locks  without  hammers,  the 
lighted  end  of  a  cigar  being  used  as  a  match  to  ignite 
the  powder  in  the  pan.  Discipline  they  have  none. 
Courage  a  Mexican  does  not  possess;  but  still  they  have 
that  brutish  indifference  to  death,  which  could  be 
turned  to  account  if  they  were  well  led,  and  officered  by 
men  of  courage  and  spirit." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  rainy  season  Ruxton,  with  a 
mozo,  started  for  the  north.  He  travelled  on  horse- 
back, and  his  way  was  made  difficult  by  the  condition 
of  the  roads,  which  were  heavy  from  rain,  and  by  the 
presence  In  the  country  of  troops  on  their  way  to  the 
war,  which  made  the  accommodations,  bad  at  best, 
still  worse. 

Concerning  the  city  of  Mexico  and  its  inhabitants  of 
the  better  class  he  speaks  with  some  enthusiasm,  but 
the  hotels  were  villainous,  the  city  unsafe  for  strangers 
after  night,  and  at  that  time  a  blond  man — a  guero — 
was  constantly  taken  for  a  Texan  or  a  Yankee,  and  was 
subject  to  attack  by  any  of  the  people. 

In  the  city  of  Mexico  Ruxton  purchased  horses  from 
a  Yankee  horse-dealer  named  Smith,  and  set  out  with 
a  pack-train  for  the  farther  north.  His  accounts  of  his 
travels,  the  difficulties  of  the  way,  the  Inns  at  which  he 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  197 

stopped,  and  the  cities  that  he  passed  through  are 
extremely  Interesting.  Of  the  manufacture  of  the  na- 
tional drink,  pulque^  the  favorite  beverage  of  the  Mexi- 
cans, he  says:  "The  maguey,  American  aloe — Agave 
americana — Is  cultivated  over  an  extent  of  country 
embracing  50,000  square  miles.  In  the  City  of  Mexico 
alone  the  consumption  of  pulque  amounts  to  the  enor- 
mous quantity  of  11,000,000  of  gallons  per  annum,  and 
a  considerable  revenue  from  its  sale  is  derived  by  Gov- 
ernment. The  plant  attains  maturity  in  a  period  vary- 
ing from  eight  to  fourteen  years,  when  it  flowers;  and  it 
is  during  the  stage  of  Inflorescence  only  that  the  sac- 
charine juice  Is  extracted.  The  central  stem  which  in- 
closes the  incipient  flower  is  then  cut  off  near  the  bot- 
tom, and  a  cavity  or  basin  Is  discovered,  over  which  the 
surrounding  leaves  are  drawn  close  and  tied.  Into  this 
reservoir  the  juice  distils,  which  otherwise  would  have 
risen  to  nourish  and  support  the  flower.  It  is  removed 
three  or  four  times  during  the  twenty-four  hours,  yield- 
ing a  quantity  of  liquor  varying  from  a  quart  to  a  gal- 
lon and  a  half. 

"The  juice  is  extracted  by  means  of  a  syphon  made 
of  a  species  of  gourd  called  acojote,  one  end  of  which  is 
placed  In  the  liquor,  the  other  In  the  mouth  of  a  person, 
who  by  suction  draws  up  the  fluid  into  the  pipe  and 
deposits  it  in  the  bowls  he  has  with  him  for  the  purpose. 
It  is  then  placed  in  earthen  jars  and  a  little  old  pulque 
— madre  de  pulque — Is  added,  when  it  soon  ferments, 
and  is  Immediately  ready  for  use.     The  fermentation 


198  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

occupies  two  or  three  days,  and  when  it  ceases  the 
pulque  is  in  fine  order. 

**01d  pulque  has  a  slightly  unpleasant  odour,  which 
heathens  have  likened  to  the  smell  of  putrid  meat,  but, 
when  fresh,  is  brisk  and  sparkling,  and  the  most  cooling, 
refreshing,  and  delicious  drink  that  ever  was  invented 
for  thirsty  mortal;  and  when  gliding  down  the  dust- 
dried  throat  of  a  way-worn  traveller,  who  feels  the 
grateful  liquor  distilling  through  his  veins,  is  indeed  the 
Micor  divino,'  which  Mexicans  assert,  is  preferred  by  the 
angels  in  heaven  to  ruby  wine." 

Wherever  Ruxton  passed,  his  fair  hair  and  complexion 
and  his  excellent  arms  were  subjects  of  wonder;  the 
first  to  the  women  and  children,  the  second  to  the  men. 
His  double-barrelled  rifles  seem  especially  to  have  im- 
pressed the  men. 

As  he  passed  farther  and  farther  north,  he  heard 
more  and  more  concerning  the  raids  of  the  Indians, 
and  at  the  ranch  of  La  Punta,  where  he  stopped  to 
witness  the  sport  of  tailing  the  bull,  he  heard  from  one 
of  the  inhabitants  an  account  of  the  raid  of  the  previous 
year,  in  which  a  number  of  peons  were  killed  and  some 
women  and  children  carried  away  to  the  north.  He 
says:  "The  ranchero's  wife  described  to  me  the  whole 
scene,  and  bitterly  accused  the  men  of  cowardice  in  not 
defending  the  place.  This  woman,  with  two  grown 
daughters  and  several  smaller  children,  fled  from 
the  rancho  before  the  Indians  approached,  and  con- 
cealed themselves  under  a  wooden  bridge  which  crossed 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  199 

a  stream  near  at  hand.  Here  they  remained  for  some 
hours,  half  dead  with  terror:  presently  some  Indians 
approached  their  place  of  concealment:  a  young  chief 
stood  on  the  bridge  and  spoke  some  words  to  the  others. 
All  this  time  he  had  his  piercing  eyes  bent  upon  their 
hiding-place,  and  had  no  doubt  discovered  them,  but 
concealed  his  satisfaction  under  an  appearance  of  indif- 
ference. He  played  with  his  victims.  In  broken  Span- 
ish they  heard  him  express  his  hope  'that  he  would  be 
able  to  discover  where  the  women  were  concealed — • 
that  he  wanted  a  Mexican  wife  and  some  scalps.' 
Suddenly  he  jumped  from  the  bridge  and  thrust  his 
lance  under  it  with  a  savage  whoop;  the  blade  pierced 
the  woman's  arm  and  she  shrieked  with  pain.  One  by 
one  they  were  drawn  from  their  retreat. 

'*  ' Dios  de  mi  alma!' — what  a  moment  was  this! — 
said  the  poor  creature.  Her  children  were  surrounded 
by  the  savages,  brandishing  their  tomahawks,  and  she 
thought  their  last  hour  was  come.  But  they  all  escaped 
with  life,  and  returned  to  find  their  houses  plundered 
and  the  corpses  of  friends  and  relations  strewing  the 
ground. 

"  ^  Ay  de  mi!' — ^what  a  day  was  this!  'Ylos  homhres* 
she  continued,  ^ qui  no  son  homhres?' — And  the  men — • 
who  are  7iot  men — where  were  they.?  ' Escondidos  coma 
las  r atones' — hidden  in  holes  like  the  rats.  'Mire!'  she 
said  suddenly,  and  with  great  excitement:  *look  at 
these  two  hundred  men,  well  mounted  and  armed,  who 
are  now  so  brave  and  fierce,  running  after  the  poor 


200  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

bulls;  if  twenty  Indians  were  to  make  their  appearance 
where  would  they  be?  Vaya!  vaya!'  she  exclaimed, 
*  son  cobardes' — they  are  cowards  all  of  them. 

"The  daughter,  who  sat  at  her  mother's  feet  during 
the  recital,  as  the  scenes  of  that  day  were  recalled  to  her 
memory,  buried  her  face  in  her  mother's  lap,  and  wept 
with  excitement. 

**To  return  to  the  toros.  In  a  large  corral,  at  one 
end  of  which  was  a  little  building,  erected  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  lady  spectators,  were  inclosed 
upwards  of  a  hundred  bulls.  Round  the  corral  were 
the  horsemen,  all  dressed  in  the  picturesque  Mexican 
costume,  examining  the  animals  as  they  were  driven  to 
and  fro  in  the  inclosure,  in  order  to  make  them  wild  for 
the  sport — alzar  el  corage.  The  ranchero  himself,  and 
his  sons,  were  riding  amongst  them,  armed  with  long 
lances,  separating  from  the  herd,  and  driving  into 
another  inclosure,  the  most  active  bulls.  When  all  was 
ready,  the  bars  were  withdrawn  from  the  entrance  of 
the  corral,  and  a  bull  driven  out,  who,  seeing  the  wide 
level  plain  before  him,  dashed  off  at  the  top  of  his  speed. 
With  a  shout,  the  horsemen  pursued  the  flying  animal, 
who,  hearing  the  uproar  behind  him,  redoubled  his 
speed.  Each  urges  his  horse  to  the  utmost,  and  strives 
to  take  the  lead  and  be  first  to  reach  the  bull.  In  such 
a  crowd,  of  course,  first-rate  horsemanship  is  required 
to  avoid  accidents  and  secure  a  safe  lead.  For  some 
minutes  the  troop  ran  on  in  a  compact  mass — a  sheet 
could  have  covered  the  lot.     Enveloped  in  a  cloud  of 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  201 

dust,  nothing  could  be  seen  but  the  bull,  some  hundred 
yards  ahead,  and  the  rolling  cloud.  Presently,  with  a 
shout,  a  horseman  emerged  from  the  front  rank;  the 
women  cried  '  Fival*  as,  passing  close  to  the  stage,  he 
was  recognized  to  be  the  son  of  the  ranchera,  a  boy  of 
twelve  years  of  age,  sitting  his  horse  like  a  bird,  and 
swaying  from  side  to  side  as  the  bull  doubled,  and  the 
cloud  of  dust  concealed  the  animal  from  his  view. 
'  FivaPepito!  viva!'  shouted  his  mother,  as  she  waved 
her  reboso  to  encourage  the  boy;  and  the  little  fellow 
struck  his  spurs  into  his  horse  and  doubled  down  to  his 
work  manfully.  But  now  two  others  are  running  neck 
and  neck  with  him,  and  the  race  for  the  lead  and  the 
first  throw  is  most  exciting.  The  men  shout,  the 
women  wave  their  rebosos  and  cry  out  their  names: 
'  Alza — Bernardo — por  mi  amor ,  Juan  Maria — Viva  Pe- 
pititof  they  scream  in  intense  excitement.  The  boy  at 
length  loses  the  lead  to  a  tall,  fine-looking  Mexican, 
mounted  on  a  fleet  and  powerful  roan  stallion,  who 
gradually  but  surely  forges  ahead.  At  this  moment 
the  sharp  eyes  of  little  Pepe  observed  the  bull  to  turn 
at  an  angle  from  his  former  course,  which  movement 
was  hidden  by  the  dust  from  the  leading  horseman.  In 
an  instant  the  boy  took  advantage  of  it,  and,  wheeling 
his  horse  at  a  right  angle  from  his  original  course,  cut 
off  the  bull.  Shouts  and  vivas  rent  the  air  at  sight  of 
this  skillful  maneuver,  and  the  boy,  urging  his  horse 
with  whip  and  spur,  ranged  up  to  the  left  quarter  of 
the  bull,  bending  down  to  seize  the  tail,  and  secure  it 


202  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

under  his  right  leg,  for  the  purpose  of  throwing  the 
animal  to  the  ground.  But  here  Pepe's  strength  failed 
him  in  a  feat  which  requires  great  power  of  muscle, 
and  in  endeavouring  to  perform  it  he  was  jerked  out  of 
his  saddle  and  fell  violently  to  the  ground,  stunned  and 
senseless.  At  least  a  dozen  horsemen  were  now  striving 
hard  for  the  post  of  honour,  but  the  roan  distanced 
them  all,  and  its  rider,  stronger  than  Pepe,  dashed  up 
to  the  bull,  threw  his  right  leg  over  the  tail,  which  he 
had  seized  in  his  right  hand,  and,  wheehng  his  horse 
suddenly  outwards,  upset  the  bull  in  the  midst  of  his 
career,  and  the  huge  animal  rolled  over  and  over  in 
the  dust,  bellowing  with  pain  and  fright." 

Pushing  northward  through  Mexico,  Ruxton  passed 
into  a  country  with  fewer  and  fewer  inhabitants.  It 
was  the  borderland  of  the  Republic,  where  the  Indians, 
constantly  raiding,  were  kilhng  people,  burning  villages, 
and  driving  off  stock.  The  author's  adventures  were 
frequent.  He  was  shot  at  by  his  mozOy  or  servant,  who 
desired  to  possess  his  property.  He  met  wagon-trains 
coming  from  Santa  Fe,  owned  and  manned  by  Amer- 
icans. He  lost  his  animals,  was  often  close  to  Indians, 
yet  escaped  without  fighting  them,  assisted  in  the 
rescue  of  a  number  of  American  teamsters  who  had 
endeavored  to  strike  across  the  country  to  reach  the 
United  States,  and  many  of  whom  had  perished  from 
hunger  and  thirst;  and  finally,  while  on  this  good 
errand,  was  robbed  of  all  his  property  by  thieves  in 
the  little  village  where  he  had  left  it.     His  journal  of 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  203 

travel  is  pleasantly  interspersed  with  traditions  of  the 
country  and  accounts  of  local  adventures  of  the  time. 

Reaching  Chihuahua,  he  found  the  shops  stocked 
with  goods  brought  from  the  United  States  by  way  of 
Santa  Fe,  it  being  profitable  to  drive  the  wagon-trains 
south  as  far  as  Chihuahua,  rather  than  to  sell  their 
loads  in  Santa  Fe.  This  Santa  Fe  trade,  always  sub- 
ject to  great  risks  from  attacks  by  Indians  and  other 
dangers  of  the  road,  was  made  still  more  difficult 
from  the  extraordinary  customs  duties  laid  by  the 
Mexican  officials,  who,  without  reference  to  the  nature 
of  the  goods  carried,  assessed  a  duty  of  ^500  on  each 
wagon,  no  matter  what  its  size  or  its  contents. 

Of  Chihuahua  as  it  was  in  those  days  Ruxton  writes 
with  enthusiasm:  *'In  the  sierras  and  mountains,"  he 
says,  "are  found  two  species  of  bears — the  common 
black,  or  American  bear,  and  the  grizly  bear  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  The  last  are  the  most  numerous, 
and  are  abundant  in  the  sierras,  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Chihuahua.  The  carnero  cimarron — the  big-horn  or 
Rocky  Mountain  sheep — is  also  common  on  the  Cordil- 
lera. Elk,  black-tailed  deer,  cola-prieta  (a  large  species 
of  the  fallow  deer),  the  common  red  deer  of  America, 
and  antelope,  abound  on  all  the  plains  and  sierras.  Of 
smaller  game,  peccaries  (javah),  also  called  cojamete, 
hares,  and  rabbits  are  everywhere  numerous;  and 
beavers  are  still  found  in  the  Gila,  the  Pecos,  the  Del 
Norte,  and  their  tributary  streams.  Of  birds — the 
faisan,  commonly  called  paisano,  a  species  of  pheasant: 


204  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

the  quail,  or  rather  a  bird  between  a  quail  and  a  par- 
tridge, is  abundant;  while  every  variety  of  snipe  and 
plover  is  found  on  the  plains,  not  forgetting  the  gruya, 
of  the  crane  kind,  whose  meat  is  excellent.  There  are 
also  two  varieties  of  wolf — the  white,  or  mountain 
wolf;  and  the  coyote,  or  small  wolf  of  the  plains,  whose 
long-continued  and  melancholy  howl  is  an  invariable 
adjunct  to  a  Mexican  night  encampment." 

At  the  time  that  the  author  passed  through  Chihua- 
hua that  province  was  in  a  state  of  more  or  less  excite- 
ment, expecting  the  advance  of  the  "Americanos"  from 
New  Mexico,  which  province  had  been  occupied  by  the 
United  States  forces  (Santa  Fe  having  been  entered 
Aug,  1 8,  1846,  by  Gen.  S,  W.  Kearny),  and  following 
the  troops  was  a  caravan  of  200  traders'  wagons  bound 
for  Chihuahua,  Ruxton  was  travelling  northward,  di- 
rectly toward  the  American  troops,  and  bore  despatches 
for  the  American  commander;  he  was  therefore  treated 
with  extreme  courtesy  in  Chihuahua  and  went  on  his 
way.  He  has  something  to  say  about  the  Mexican 
troops  stationed  here  at  Chihuahua,  whom  Colonel 
Doniphan,  two  or  three  months  later,  with  900  volun- 
teers, defeated  with  a  loss  of  300  killed  and  as  many 
wounded,  capturing  the  city  of  Chihuahua,  and  without 
**losing  one  man  in  the  campaign."  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  one  man  was  killed  on  the  United  States  side, 
while  the  Mexican  losses  were  given  as  320  killed,  560 
wounded,  and  72  prisoners. 

It  was  in  November  that  the  author  bade  adieu  to 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  205 

Chihuahua  and  set  out  for  Santa  Fe,  Though  the 
country  through  which  he  journeyed  was  infested  with 
Indians,  yet  now  and  then  a  Mexican  village  was 
passed,  occupied  by  people  who  were  poor  both  in 
pocket  and  in  spirit,  and  satisfied  merely  to  live.  When 
the  Rio  Grande,  which  in  old  times  was  commonly 
called  the  Del  Norte,  was  passed,  Ruxton  was  in  what 
is  now  the  United  States.  It  was  then  Mexican  terri- 
tory, however,  and  at  El  Paso  there  were  Mexican 
troops,  and  also  a  few  American  prisoners.  From  here, 
for  some  distance  northward,  Indian  "sign"  was  con- 
stantly seen,  chiefly  of  Apaches,  who  made  it  their 
business  and  their  pleasure  to  ravage  the  region. 

On  the  Rio  Grande,  a  few  days'  journey  beyond  El 
Paso,  a  surveying  party  under  the  command  of  Lieu- 
tenant Abert,  of  the  United  States  Engineers,  was 
met  with,  and  near  him  was  camped  a  great  part  of  the 
traders'  caravan  which  was  on  its  way  to  Chihuahua, 
The  scene  here  must  have  been  one  of  interest.  The 
wagons  were  corralled,  making  a  fort,  from  which 
Indians  or  Mexicans  could  be  defied,  and  the  large  and 
wild-looking  Missourians  formed  a  striking  contrast 
to  the  tiny  Mexicans,  with  whom  the  author  had  so 
long  been  mingling.  The  American  troops  in  this  and 
neighboring  camps  were  volunteers,  each  one  of  whom 
thought  himself  quite  as  good  as  his  commanding 
officers,  and  anything  like  discipline  was  unknown. 
Ruxton  was  greatly  impressed  by  this,  and  commented 
freely  on  it,  declaring  that — "the  American  can  never 


2o6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

be  made  a  soldier;  his  constitution  will  not  bear  the 
restraint  of  discipline;  neither  will  his  very  mistaken 
notions  about  liberty  allow  him  to  subject  himself  to 
its  necessary  control." 

No  doubt  the  troops  which  conquered  Mexico  were 
a  good  deal  of  a  mob,  and  won  their  victories  in  a  great 
measure  by  the  force  of  individual  courage,  and  through 
the  timidity  and  still  greater  lack  of  organization  of 
the  troops  opposed  to  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
Ruxton  seems  to  have  felt  much  admiration  for  the 
officers  in  command  of  the  regular  army.  He  speaks  of 
West  Point,  and  declares  that  the  military  education 
received  there  is  one  *'by  which  they  acquire  a  practical 
as  well  as  theoretical  knowledge  of  the  science  of  war"; 
and  that,  *'as  a  class,  they  are  probably  more  distin- 
guished for  military  knowledge  than  the  officers  of  any 
European  army;  uniting  with  this  a  high  chivalrous 
feeling  and  a  most  conspicuous  gallantry,  they  have  all 
the  essentials  of  the  officer  and  soldier." 

Ruxton  spent  some  time  hunting  about  this  camp. 
One  day  he  had  a  shot  at  a  large  panther  which  he  did 
not  kill,  and  later  he  found  a  turkey-roost.  After  a 
short  delay  here  he  started  northward  again.  One  of 
his  servants  had  deserted  him  some  time  before,  and 
now  he  sent  the  other  back  to  Mexico  because  he  was 
already  suffering  from  the  severity  of  the  climate.  The 
author's  animals  had  now  been  travelling  so  long 
together  that  they  required  little  or  no  attention  in 
driving.    Of  course  the  operation  of  packing  for  a  single 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  207 

man  was  slow  and  difficult.  Continuing  northward,  he 
reached  Santa  Fe,  where,  however,  he  did  not  stop  long. 
It  was  now  winter,  and  the  weather  cold  and 
snowy,  but  the  intrepid  traveller  had  no  notion  of  wait- 
ing for  more  genial  days.  He  has  much  to  say  about 
the  Indians  in  the  neighborhood,  and  especially  of  the 
Pueblos,  whose  stone  villages  and  peculiar  methods  of 
life  greatly  interested  him.  He  found  the  Mexicans  of 
New  Mexico  no  more  attractive  than  those  with  whom 
he  had  had  to  do  farther  to  the  southward,  but  seems 
to  have  felt  a  certain  respect,  if  not  admiration,  for 
the  Canadian  and  American  trappers  who  had  married 
among  these  people.  Some  of  these  men  advised  him 
strongly  against  making  the  effort  to  reach  Fort  Leav- 
enworth at  this  season  of  the  year,  but  he  kept  on. 
The  journey  was  difficult,  however.  His  animals,  na- 
tives of  the  low  country  and  of  the  tropics,  were  unused 
to  mountain  travel;  each  frozen  stream  that  they  came 
to  was  a  cause  of  delay.  The  work  of  getting  them  on 
was  very  laborious,  and  every  two  or  three  days  Ruxton 
froze  his  hands.  He  was  now  approaching  the  country 
of  the  Utes,  who  at  that  time  were  constantly  raiding 
the  settlements  of  northern  New  Mexico,  killing  the 
Mexicans  and  taking  their  horses.  His  purpose  was  to 
strike  the  Arkansas  River  near  its  head  waters,  and  to 
reach  the  Bayou  Salado,  an  old  rendezvous  for  trappers 
and  a  great  game  country.  The  cold  of  the  mountain 
country  grew  more  and  more  bitter,  and  the  constant 
winds  made  it  almost  impossible  for  the  men  to  keep 


2o8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

from  freezing.  Indeed,  sometimes  the  cold  was  so 
severe  that  Ruxton  found  it  necessary  to  put  blankets 
on  his  animals  to  keep  them  from  perishing.  For  days 
at  a  time  snow,  wind,  and  cold  were  so  severe  that  it 
was  impossible  to  shoot  game,  as  he  could  not  bend 
his  stiffened  fingers  without  a  long  preliminary  effort. 

During  a  part  of  his  journey  from  Red  River  north 
he  had  been  constantly  followed  by  a  large  gray  wolf, 
which  evidently  kept  with  him  for  the  remains  of  the 
animals  killed,  and  for  bits  of  food  left  around  camp. 

At  length  the  Huerfano  River  was  passed  and  a  httle 
later  the  Greenhorn,  where  there  was  a  camp  of  one 
white  trapper  and  two  or  three  French  Canadians.  A 
few  days  later  the  Arkansas  was  reached,  and  then  the 
trading-post  known  as  the  Pueblo.  Here  Ruxton 
became  a  guest  of  John  Hawkins,  a  well-known  moun- 
taineer of  the  time,  and  here  he  spent  the  remainder  of 
the  winter  hunting  on  the  Fontaine-qui-bouille  and  in 
the  Bayou  Salado. 

Ruxton  had  many  hunting  adventures,  and  some 
narrow  escapes  from  Indian  fighting.  Much  of  what 
he  writes  of  this  period  has  to  do  with  the  animals  of 
the  region,  for  at  that  time  the  country  swarmed  with 
game.  The  rapidity  with  which  wolves  will  devour  an 
animal  is  well  known  to  those  familiar  with  the  olden 
time,  but  not  to  the  people  of  to-day. 

"The  sagacity  of  wolves  is  almost  incredible.  They 
will  remain  around  a  hunting  camp  and  follow  the 
hunters  the  whole  day,  in  bands  of  three  and  four,  at 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  209 

less  than  a  hundred  yards  distance,  stopping  when 
they  stop,  and  sitting  down  quietly  when  game  is 
killed,  rushing  to  devour  the  ofFal  when  the  hunter 
retires,  and  then  following  until  another  feed  Is  offered 
them.  If  a  deer  or  antelope  Is  wounded,  they  immedi- 
ately pursue  it,  and  not  unfrequently  pull  the  animal 
down  in  time  for  the  hunter  to  come  up  and  secure  it 
from  their  ravenous  clutches.  However,  they  appear 
to  know  at  once  the  nature  of  the  wound,  for  if  but 
sHghtly  touched,  they  never  exert  themselves  to  follow 
a  deer,  chasing  those  only  which  have  received  a  mor- 
tal blow. 

"I  one  day  killed  an  old  buck  which  was  so  poor 
that  I  left  the  carcase  on  the  ground  untouched.  Six 
coyotes,  or  small  prairie  wolves,  were  my  attendants 
that  day,  and  of  course,  before  I  had  left  the  deer  twenty 
paces,  had  commenced  their  work  of  destruction.  Cer- 
tainly not  ten  minutes  after,  I  looked  back  and  saw 
the  same  six  loping  after  me,  one  of  them  not  twenty 
yards  behind  me,  with  his  nose  and  face  all  besmeared 
with  blood  and  his  belly  swelled  almost  to  bursting. 
Thinking  it  scarcely  possible  that  they  could  have 
devoured  the  whole  deer  in  so  short  a  space,  I  had  the 
curiosity  to  return,  and,  to  my  astonishment,  found 
actually  nothing  left  but  a  pile  of  bones  and  hair,  the 
flesh  being  stripped  from  them  as  clean  as  if  scraped 
with  a  knife.  Half  an  hour  after  I  killed  a  large  black- 
tail  deer,  and  as  it  was  also  in  miserable  condition,  I 
took  merely  the  fleeces  (as  the  meat  on  the  back  and 


2IO  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ribs  is  called),  leaving  four-fifths  of  the  animal  un- 
touched. I  then  retired  a  short  distance,  and,  sitting 
down  on  a  rock,  lighted  my  pipe,  and  watched  the  oper- 
ations of  the  wolves.  They  sat  perfectly  still  until  I 
had  withdrawn  some  three-score  yards,  when  they  scam- 
pered, with  a  flourish  of  their  tails,  straight  to  the 
deer.  Then  commenced  such  a  tugging  and  snarling 
and  biting,  all  squeaking  and  swallowing  at  the  same 
moment.  A  skirmish  of  tails  and  flying  hair  was  seen 
for  five  minutes,  when  the  last  of  them,  with  slouching 
tail  and  evidently  ashamed  of  himself,  withdrew,  and 
nothing  remained  on  the  ground  but  a  well-picked 
skeleton.  By  sunset,  when  I  returned  to  camp,  they 
had  swallowed  as  much  as  three  entire  deer." 

Although  Ruxton  was  no  longer  travelling,  he  was 
not  yet  free  from  danger  from  storms,  and  an  extraor- 
dinary night  passed  in  a  snow-storm  followed  the  loss  of 
his  animals  on  a  hunting  trip.  Horses  and  mules  had 
disappeared  one  morning,  and  he  and  his  companion 
had  set  out  to  find  them.  This  they  did,  and  when  they 
overtook  the  animals,  shortly  after  noon,  he  says:  "I 
found  them  quietly  feeding  .  .  .  and  they  suffered  me  to 
catch  them  without  difficulty.  As  we  were  now  within 
twenty  miles  of  the  fort,  Morgan  (his  companion),  who 
had  had  enough  of  it,  determined  to  return,  and  I 
agreed  to  go  back  with  the  animals  to  the  cache,  and 
bring  in  the  meat  and  packs.  I  accordingly  tied  the 
blanket  on  a  mule's  back,  and,  leading  the  horse,  trotted 
back  at  once  to  the  grove  of  cottonwoods  where  we 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  211 

had  before  encamped.  The  sky  had  been  gradually 
overcast  with  leaden-coloured  clouds,  until,  when  near 
sunset,  it  was  one  huge  inky  mass  of  rolling  darkness: 
the  wind  had  suddenly  lulled,  and  an  unnatural  calm, 
which  so  surely  heralds  a  storm  in  these  tempestuous 
regions,  succeeded.  The  ravens  were  winging  their 
way  toward  the  shelter  of  the  timber,  and  the  coyote 
was  seen  trotting  quickly  to  cover,  conscious  of  the 
coming  storm. 

"The  black  threatening  clouds  seemed  gradually  to 
descend  until  they  kissed  the  earth,  and  already  the 
distant  mountains  were  hidden  to  their  very  bases.  A 
hollow  murmuring  swept  through  the  bottom,  but  as 
yet  not  a  branch  was  stirred  by  wind;  and  the  huge 
cottonwoods,  with  their  leafless  Hmbs,  loomed  like  a 
line  of  ghosts  through  the  heavy  gloom.  Knowing  but 
too  well  what  was  coming,  I  turned  my  animals  toward 
the  timber,  which  was  about  two  miles  distant.  With 
pointed  ears,  and  actually  trembling  with  fright,  they 
were  as  eager  as  myself  to  reach  the  shelter;  but, 
before  we  had  proceeded  a  third  of  the  distance,  with 
a  deafening  roar,  the  tempest  broke  upon  us.  The 
clouds  opened  and  drove  right  in  our  faces  a  storm  of 
freezing  sleet,  which  froze  upon  us  as  it  fell.  The  first 
squall  of  wind  carried  away  my  cap,  and  the  enormous 
hailstones  beating  on  my  unprotected  head  and  face, 
almost  stunned  me.  In  an  instant  my  hunting  shirt 
was  soaked,  and  as  instantly  frozen  hard;  and  my  horse 
was  a  mass  of  icicles.     Jumping  off  my  mule — for  to 


212  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ride  was  impossible — I  tore  off  the  saddle  blanket  and 
covered  my  head.  The  animals,  blinded  with  the 
sleet,  and  their  eyes  actually  coated  with  ice,  turned 
their  sterns  to  the  storm,  and,  blown  before  it,  made 
for  the  open  prairie.  All  my  exertions  to  drive  them 
to  the  shelter  of  the  timber  were  useless.  It  was  impos- 
sible to  face  the  hurricane,  which  now  brought  with  it 
clouds  of  driving  snow;  and  perfect  darkness  soon  set 
in.  Still,  the  animals  kept  on,  and  I  determined  not  to 
leave  them,  following,  or,  rather,  being  blown,  after 
them.  My  blanket,  frozen  stiff  like  a  board,  required 
all  the  strength  of  my  numbed  fingers  to  prevent  its 
being  blown  away,  and  although  it  was  no  protection 
against  the  intense  cold,  I  knew  it  would  in  some  degree 
shelter  me  at  night  from  the  snow.  In  half  an  hour  the 
ground  was  covered  on  the  bare  prairie  to  the  depth  of 
two  feet,  and  through  this  I  floundered  for  a  long  time 
before  the  animals  stopped.  The  prairie  was  as  bare 
as  a  lake;  but  one  little  tuft  of  greasewood  bushes 
presented  itself,  and  here,  turning  from  the  storm,  they 
suddenly  stopped  and  remained  perfectly  still.  In  vain 
I  again  attempted  to  turn  them  toward  the  direction 
of  the  timber;  huddled  together,  they  would  not  move 
an  inch;  and,  exhausted  myself,  and  seeing  nothing 
before  me  but,  as  I  thought,  certain  death,  I  sank  down 
immediately  behind  them,  and,  covering  my  head  with 
the  blanket,  crouched  like  a  ball  in  the  snow.  I  would 
have  started  myself  for  the  timber,  but  it  was  pitchy 
dark,  the  wind  drove  clouds  of  frozen  snow  into  my 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  213 

face,  and  the  animals  had  so  turned  about  in  the 
prairie  that  it  was  impossible  to  know  the  direction  to 
take;  and  although  I  had  a  compass  with  me,  my  hands 
were  so  frozen  that  I  was  perfectly  unable,  after 
repeated  attempts,  to  unscrew  the  box  and  consult  it. 
Even  had  I  reached  the  timber,  my  situation  would 
have  been  scarcely  improved,  for  the  trees  were  scat- 
tered wide  about  over  a  narrow  space,  and,  consequently, 
afforded  but  Httle  shelter;  and  if  even  I  had  succeeded 
in  getting  firewood — by  no  means  an  easy  matter  at 
any  time,  and  still  more  difficult  now  that  the  ground 
was  covered  with  three  feet  of  snow — I  was  utterly 
unable  to  use  my  flint  and  steel  to  procure  a  light,  since 
my  fingers  were  like  pieces  of  stone,  and  entirely  with- 
out feeling. 

"The  way  the  wind  roared  over  the  prairie  that  night 
— how  the  snow  drove  before  it,  covering  me  and 
the  poor  animals  partly — and  how  I  lay  there,  feeling 
the  very  blood  freezing  in  my  veins,  and  my  bones  pet- 
rifying with  the  icy  blasts  which  seemed  to  penetrate 
them — how  for  hours  I  remained  with  my  head  on  my 
knees  and  the  snow  pressing  it  down  like  a  weight  of 
lead,  expecting  every  instant  to  drop  into  a  sleep  from 
which  I  knew  it  was  impossible  I  should  ever  awake — 
how  every  now  and  then  the  mules  would  groan  aloud 
and  fall  down  upon  the  snow,  and  then  again  struggle 
on  their  legs — how  all  night  long  the  piercing  howl  of 
wolves  was  borne  upon  the  wind,  which  never  for 
an  instant  abated  its  violence  during  the  night, — I  would 


214  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

not  attempt  to  describe.  I  have  passed  many  nights 
alone  in  the  wilderness  and  in  a  solitary  camp — have 
listened  to  the  roarings  of  the  wind  and  the  howhng  of 
wolves,  and  felt  the  rain  or  snow  beating  upon  me  with 
perfect  unconcern :  but  this  night  threw  all  my  former 
experiences  into  the  shade,  and  is  marked  with  the 
blackest  of  stones  in  the  memoranda  of  my  journeyings. 

"Once,  late  in  the  night,  by  keeping  my  hands  buried 
in  the  breast  of  my  hunting  shirt,  I  succeeded  in  restor- 
ing sufficient  feeling  into  them  to  enable  me  to  strike 
a  light.  Luckily  my  pipe,  which  was  made  out  of  a 
huge  piece  of  cottonwood  bark,  and  capable  of  con- 
taining at  least  twelve  ordinary  pipefuls,  was  filled  with 
tobacco  to  the  brim;  and  this  I  do  believe  kept  me 
alive  during  the  night,  for  I  smoked  and  smoked  until 
the  pipe  itself  caught  fire  and  burned  completely  to 
the  stem. 

"I  was  just  sinking  into  a  dreamy  stupor,  when  the 
mules  began  to  shake  themselves  and  sneeze  and  snort; 
which  hailing  as  a  good  sign,  and  that  they  were  still 
alive,  I  attempted  to  lift  my  head  and  take  a  view  of 
the  weather.  When  with  great  difficulty  I  raised  my 
head,  all  appeared  dark  as  pitch,  and  it  did  not  at  first 
occur  to  me  that  I  was  buried  deep  in  snow;  but  when 
I  thrust  my  arm  above  me,  a  hole  was  thus  made, 
through  which  I  saw  the  stars  shining  in  the  sky  and 
the  clouds  fast  clearing  away.  Making  a  sudden  at- 
tempt to  straighten  my  almost  petrified  back  and 
limbs,   I  rose,   but,   unable  to  stand,  fell  forward   in 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  215 

the  snow,  frightening  the  animals,  which  immediately 
started  away.  When  I  gained  my  legs  I  found  that 
day  was  just  breaking,  a  long  gray  line  of  light  appear- 
ing over  the  belt  of  timber  on  the  creek,  and  the  clouds 
gradually  rising  from  the  east,  and  allowing  the  stars  to 
peep  from  patches  of  blue  sky.  Following  the  animals 
as  soon  as  I  gained  the  use  of  my  limbs,  and  taking  a 
last  look  at  the  perfect  cave  from  which  I  had  just 
risen,  I  found  them  in  the  timber,  and,  singularly 
enough,  under  the  very  tree  where  we  had  cached  our 
meat.  However,  I  was  unable  to  ascend  the  tree  in  my 
present  state,  and  my  frost-bitten  fingers  refused  to 
perform  their  offices;  so  that  I  jumped  upon  my  horse, 
and,  followed  by  the  mules,  galloped  back  to  the  Ar- 
kansa,  which  I  reached  in  the  evening,  half  dead  with 
hunger  and  cold. 

"The  hunters  had  given  me  up  for  lost,  as  such  a 
night  even  the  'oldest  inhabitant'  had  never  witnessed. 
My  late  companion  had  reached  the  Arkansa,  and  was 
safely  housed  before  it  broke,  blessing  his  lucky  stars 
that  he  had  not  gone  back  with  me." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  news  of  the  Pueblo  In- 
dian rising  in  the  valley  of  Taos  was  received  and  that 
Governor  Charles  Bent  and  other  white  men  had  been 
killed. 

At  this  time  the  fur  of  the  beaver  had  been  supplanted 
by  other  and  cheaper  materials,  so  that  beaver  fur, 
which  formerly  brought  eight  dollars  a  pound,  now 
brought  but  one  dollar.     For  this  reason  many,  if  not 


2i6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

most,  of  the  trappers  had  for  the  time  being  ceased 
their  work,  and  had  settled  down  on  farms  in  the  moun- 
tains, where,  though  professing  to  farm,  they  raised 
little  from  the  ground  except  corn,  but  subsisted  almost 
entirely  on  the  game,  which  was  enormously  abun- 
dant. The  author  has  much  to  say  about  the  trappers 
and  their  ways  of  life,  and  this  is  one  of  the  spirited 
pictures  of  the  craft  that  he  paints: 

"On  starting  for  a  hunt,  the  trapper  fits  himself  out 
with  the  necessary  equipment,  either  from  the  Indian 
trading-forts,  or  from  some  of  the  petty  traders — 
coureurs  des  bois — who  frequent  the  western  country. 
This  equipment  consists  usually  of  two  or  three  horses 
or  mules — one  for  saddle,  the  others  for  packs^and 
six  traps,  which  are  carried  in  a  bag  of  leather  called 
a  trap-sack.  Ammunition,  a  few  pounds  of  tobacco, 
dressed  deer-skins  for  moccasins,  &c.,  are  carried  in  a 
wallet  of  dressed  bulFalo-skin,  called  a  possible-sack. 
His  'possibles'  and  'trap-sack'  are  generally  carried  on 
the  saddle-mule  when  hunting,  the  others  being  packed 
with  the  furs.  The  costume  of  the  trapper  is  a  hunting- 
shirt  of  dressed  buckskin,  ornamented  with  long  fringes; 
pantaloons  of  the  same  material,  and  decorated  with 
porcupine-quills  and  long  fringes  down  the  outside  of 
the  leg.  A  flexible  felt  hat  and  moccasins  clothe  his 
extremities.  Over  his  left  shoulder  and  under  his  right 
arm  hang  his  powder-horn  and  bullet-pouch,  in  which 
he  carries  his  balls,  flint  and  steel,  and  odds  and  ends  of 
all  kinds.    Round  the  waist  is  a  belt,  in  which  is  stuck 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  217 

a  large  butcher-knife  in  a  sheath  of  bufFalo-hide,  made 
fast  to  the  belt  by  a  chain  or  guard  of  steel;  which 
also  supports  a  little  buckskin  case  containing  a  whet- 
stone. A  tomahawk  is  also  often  added;  and,  of  course, 
a  long  heavy  rifle  is  part  and  parcel  of  his  equipment. 
I  had  nearly  forgotten  the  pipe-holder,  which  hangs 
round  his  neck,  and  is  generally  a  gage  d'amour,  and  a 
triumph  of  squaw  workmanship,  in  shape  of  a  heart, 
garnished  with  beads  and  porcupine-quills. 

"Thus  provided,  and  having  determined  the  locality 
of  his  trapping-ground,  he  starts  to  the  mountains, 
sometimes  alone,  sometimes  with  three  or  four  in  com- 
pany, as  soon  as  the  breaking  up  of  the  ice  allows  him 
to  commence  operations.  Arrived  on  his  hunting- 
grounds,  he  follows  the  creeks  and  streams,  keeping  a 
sharp  look-out  for  'sign.' 

"During  the  hunt,  regardless  of  Indian  vicinity,  the 
fearless  trapper  wanders  far  and  near  in  search  of 
'sign.'  His  nerves  must  ever  be  in  a  state  of  tension, 
and  his  mind  ever  present  at  his  call.  His  eagle  eye 
sweeps  round  the  country,  and  in  an  instant  detects 
any  foreign  appearance.  A  turned  leaf,  a  blade  of 
grass  pressed  down,  the  uneasiness  of  the  wild  animals, 
the  flight  of  birds,  are  all  paragraphs  to  him  written  in 
nature's  legible  hand  and  plainest  language.  All  the 
wits  of  the  subtle  savage  are  called  into  play  to  gain 
an  advantage  over  the  wily  woodsman;  but  with  the 
natural  instinct  of  primitive  man,  the  white  hunter 
has  the  advantages  of  a  civilized  mind,  and,  thus  pro- 


21 8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

vided,  seldom  fails  to  outwit,  under  equal  advantages, 
the  cunning  savage. 

** Sometimes,  following  on  his  trail,  the  Indian 
watches  him  set  his  traps  on  a  shrub-belted  stream, 
and,  passing  up  the  bed,  like  Bruce  of  old,  so  that  he 
may  leave  no  tracks,  he  lies  in  wait  in  the  bushes  until 
the  hunter  comes  to  examine  his  carefully-set  traps. 
Then,  waiting  until  he  approaches  his  ambushment 
within  a  few  feet,  whiz  flies  the  home-drawn  arrow, 
never  failing  at  such  close  quarters  to  bring  the  victim 
to  the  ground.  For  one  white  scalp,  however,  that 
dangles  in  the  smoke  of  an  Indian's  lodge,  a  dozen 
black  ones,  at  the  end  of  the  hunt,  ornament  the  camp- 
fires  of  the  rendezvous. 

"At  a  certain  time,  when  the  hunt  is  over,  or  they 
have  loaded  their  pack-animals,  the  trappers  proceed 
to  the  *  rendezvous,'  the  locality  of  which  has  been 
previously  agreed  upon;  and  here  the  traders  and 
agents  of  the  fur  companies  await  them,  with  such 
assortment  of  goods  as  their  hardy  customers  may 
require,  including  generally  a  fair  supply  of  alcohol. 
The  trappers  drop  in  singly  and  in  small  bands,  bring- 
ing their  packs  of  beaver  to  this  mountain  market,  not 
unfrequently  to  the  value  of  a  thousand  dollars  each, 
the  produce  of  one  hunt.  The  dissipation  of  the  'ren- 
dezvous,' however,  soon  turns  the  trapper's  pocket  in- 
side out.  The  goods  brought  by  the  traders,  although 
of  the  most  inferior  quality,  are  sold  at  enormous 
prices :— Coffee,  twenty  and  thirty  shillings  a  pint-cup. 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  219 

which  is  the  usual  measure;  tobacco  fetches  ten  and 
fifteen  shillings  a  plug;  alcohol,  from  twenty  to  fifty 
shillings  a  pint;  gunpowder,  sixteen  shillings  a  pint- 
cup;  and  all  other  articles  at  proportionately  exorbitant 
prices. 

"A  trapper  often  squanders  the  produce  of  his  hunt, 
amounting  to  hundreds  of  dollars,  in  a  couple  of  hours; 
and,  supplied  on  credit  with  another  equipment,  leaves 
the  rendezvous  for  another  expedition,  which  has  the 
same  result  time  after  time;  although  one  tolerably 
successful  hunt  would  enable  him  to  return  to  the 
settlements  and  civilized  life,  with  an  ample  sum  to 
purchase  and  stock  a  farm,  and  enjoy  himself  in  ease 
and  comfort  the  remainder  of  his  days. 

"An  old  trapper,  a  French  Canadian,  assured  me 
that  he  had  received  fifteen  thousand  dollars  for  beaver 
during  a  sojourn  of  twenty  years  in  the  mountains. 
Every  year  he  resolved  in  his  mind  to  return  to  Can- 
ada and,  with  this  object,  always  converted  his  fur 
into  cash;  but  a  fortnight  at  the  'rendezvous'  always 
cleaned  him  out,  and,  at  the  end  of  twenty  years,  he 
had  not  even  credit  sufficient  to  buy  a  pound  of  powder. 

"These  annual  gatherings  are  often  the  scene  of 
bloody  duels,  for  over  their  cups  and  cards  no  men  are 
more  quarrelsome  than  your  mountaineers.  Rifles,  at 
twenty  paces,  settle  all  differences,  and,  as  may  be 
imagined,  the  fall  of  one  or  other  of  the  combatants 
is  certain,  or,  as  sometimes  happens,  both  fall  to  the 
word  'fire.'  " 


220  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Ruxton  made  many  solitary  hunting  trips  away  from 
the  fort — Pueblo — and  of  one  of  these,  to  the  head  of 
the  Fontaine-qui-bouille,  he  paints  a  pleasing  picture: 

"Never  was  there  such  a  paradise  for  hunters  as 
this  lone  and  solitary  spot.  The  shelving  prairie,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  the  springs  are  situated,  is  entirely 
surrounded  by  rugged  mountains,  and,  containing  per- 
haps two  or  three  acres  of  excellent  grass,  affords  a 
safe  pasture  to  their  animals,  which  would  hardly  care 
to  wander  from  such  feeding,  and  the  salitrose  rocks 
they  love  so  well  to  lick.  Immediately  overhead,  Pike's 
Peak,  at  an  elevation  of  12,000  feet  above  the  level  of 
the  sea,  towers  high  into  the  clouds;  whilst  from  the 
fountain,  like  a  granitic  amphitheatre,  ridge  after  ridge, 
clothed  with  pine  and  cedar,  rises  and  meets  the  stu- 
pendous mass  of  mountains,  well  called  'Rocky,'  which 
stretches  far  away  north  and  southward,  their  gigantic 
peaks  being  visible  above  the  strata  of  clouds  which 
hide  their  rugged  bases. 

"This  first  day  the  sun  shone  out  bright  and  warm, 
and  not  a  breath  of  wind  ruffled  the  evergreen  foliage 
of  the  cedar  groves.  Gay-plumaged  birds  were  twitter- 
ing in  the  shrubs,  and  ravens  and  magpies  were  chatter- 
ing overhead,  attracted  by  the  meat  I  had  hung  upon 
a  tree;  the  mules,  having  quickly  filled  themselves, 
were  lying  round  the  spring,  basking  lazily  in  the  sun; 
and  myself,  seated  on  a  pack,  and  pipe  in  mouth,  with 
rifle  ready  at  my  side,  indolently  enjoyed  the  rays, 
which  reverberated  (sic)  from  the  white  rock  on  which 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  221 

I  was  lying,  were  deliciously  warm  and  soothing.  A 
piece  of  rock,  detached  from  the  mountainside  and 
tumbling  noisily  down,  caused  me  to  look  up  in  the 
direction  whence  it  came.  Half  a  dozen  big-horns,  or 
Rocky  Mountain  sheep,  perched  on  the  pinnacle  of  a 
rock,  were  gazing  wonderingly  upon  the  prairie,  where 
the  mules  were  rolhng  enveloped  in  clouds  of  dust. 
The  enormous  horns  of  the  mountain  sheep  appeared 
so  disproportionably  heavy,  that  I  every  moment  ex- 
pected to  see  them  lose  their  balance  and  topple  over 
the  giddy  height.  My  motions  frightened  them,  and, 
jumping  from  rock  to  rock,  they  quickly  disappeared 
up  the  steepest  part  of  the  mountain.  At  the  same  mo- 
ment a  herd  of  blacktail  deer  crossed  the  corner  of  the 
glade  within  rifle  shot  of  me,  but,  fearing  the  vicinity 
of  Indians,  I  refrained  from  firing  before  I  had  recon- 
noitred the  vicinity  for  signs  of  their  recent  presence. 

"Immediately  over  me,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  stream, 
and  high  above  the  springs,  was  a  small  plateau,  one  of 
many  which  are  seen  on  the  mountainsides.  Three 
buffalo  bulls  were  here  quietly  feeding,  and  remained 
the  whole  afternoon  undisturbed.  I  saw  from  the  sign 
that  they  had  very  recently  drunk  at  the  springs,  and 
that  the  little  prairie  where  my  animals  were  feeding 
was  a  frequent  resort  of  solitary  bulls." 

A  mountain  hunter  rather  than  one  of  the  plains, 
Ruxton  nevertheless  devotes  some  space  to  buffalo 
hunting.  He  points  out  what  has  so  often  been  writ- 
ten of  since  his  time,  that  the  buffalo  was  hard  to  kill. 


222  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

not  because  it  had  so  much  vitaHty,  but  because  the 
inexperienced  hunter  so  seldom  shot  it  in  the  right 
place.     Thus  he  says: 

"No  animal  requires  so  much  killing  as  a  buffalo. 
Unless  shot  through  the  lungs  or  spine,  they  invariably 
escape;  and,  even  when  thus  mortally  wounded,  or 
even  struck  through  the  very  heart,  they  will  fre- 
quently run  a  considerable  distance  before  falling  to 
the  ground,  particularly  if  they  see  the  hunter  after 
the  wound  is  given.  If,  however,  he  keeps  himself 
concealed  after  firing,  the  animal  will  remain  still,  if  it 
does  not  immediately  fall.  It  is  a  most  painful  sight 
to  witness  the  dying  struggles  of  the  huge  beast.  The 
buffalo  invariably  evinces  the  greatest  repugnance  to 
lie  down  when  mortally  wounded,  apparently  conscious 
that,  when  once  touching  mother  earth,  there  is  no 
hope  left  him.  A  bull,  shot  through  the  heart  or  lungs, 
with  blood  streaming  from  his  mouth,  and  protruding 
tongue,  his  eyes  rolling,  bloodshot,  and  glazed  with 
death,  braces  himself  on  his  legs,  swaying  from  side 
to  side,  stamps  impatiently  at  his  growing  weakness, 
or  lifts  his  rugged  and  matted  head  and  helplessly  bel- 
lows out  his  conscious  impotence.  To  the  last,  how- 
ever, he  endeavours  to  stand  upright,  and  plants  his 
limbs  farther  apart,  but  to  no  purpose.  As  the  body 
rolls  like  a  ship  at  sea,  his  head  slowly  turns  from  side 
to  side,  looking  about,  as  it  were,  for  the  unseen  and 
treacherous  enemy  who  has  brought  him,  the  lord  of 
the  plains,  to  such  a  pass.     Gouts  of  purple  blood  spurt 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  223 

from  his  mouth  and  nostrils,  and  gradually  the  failing 
limbs  refuse  longer  to  support  the  ponderous  carcase; 
more  heavily  rolls  the  body  from  side  to  side,  until 
suddenly,  for  a  brief  instant,  it  becomes  rigid  and  still; 
a  convulsive  tremor  seizes  it,  and,  with  a  low,  sobbing 
gasp,  the  huge  animal  falls  over  on  his  side,  the  limbs 
extended  stark  and  stiff,  and  the  mountain  of  flesh 
without  life  or  motion. 

"The  first  attempts  of  a  'greenhorn'  to  kill  a  buffalo 
are  invariably  unsuccessful.  He  sees  before  him  a 
mass  of  flesh,  nearly  five  feet  in  depth  from  the  top  of 
the  hump  to  the  brisket,  and  consequently  imagines 
that,  by  planting  his  ball  midway  between  these  points, 
it  must  surely  reach  the  vitals.  Nothing,  however,  is 
more  erroneous  than  the  impression;  for  to  'throw  a 
buffalo  in  his  tracks,'  which  is  the  phrase  of  making  a 
clean  shot,  he  must  be  struck  but  a  few  inches  above 
the  brisket,  behind  the  shoulder,  where  alone,  unless 
the  spine  be  divided,  a  death-shot  will  reach  the  vitals. 
I  once  shot  a  bull,  the  ball  passing  directly  through  the 
very  centre  of  the  heart  and  tearing  a  hole  suflaciently 
large  to  insert  the  finger,  which  ran  upwards  of  half  a 
mile  before  it  fell,  and  yet  the  ball  had  passed  com- 
pletely through  the  animal,  cutting  its  heart  almost  in 
two.  I  also  saw  eighteen  shots,  the  half  of  them  mus- 
kets, deliberately  fired  into  an  old  bull,  at  six  paces, 
and  some  of  them  passing  through  the  body,  the  poor 
animal  standing  the  whole  time,  and  making  feeble  at- 
tempts   to    charge.     The    nineteenth    shot,    with    the 


224  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

muzzle  touching  his  body,  brought  him  to  the  ground. 
The  head  of  the  buffalo-bull  is  so  thickly  covered  with 
coarse  matted  hair,  that  a  ball  fired  at  half  a  dozen 
paces  will  not  penetrate  the  skull  through  the  shaggy 
frontlock.  I  have  frequently  attempted  this  with  a 
rifle  carrying  twenty-five  balls  to  the  pound,  but  never 
once  succeeded. 

*' Notwithstanding  the  great  and  wanton  destruction 
of  the  buffalo,  many  years  must  elapse  before  this  lordly 
animal  becomes  extinct.  In  spite  of  their  numerous 
enemies,  they  still  exist  in  countless  numbers,  and, 
could  any  steps  be  taken  to  protect  them,  as  is  done  in 
respect  of  other  game,  they  would  ever  remain  the  life 
and  ornament  of  the  boundless  prairies,  and  afford 
ample  and  never-failing  provision  to  the  travelers  over 
these  otherwise  desert  plains.  Some  idea  of  the  pro- 
digious slaughter  of  these  animals  may  be  formed,  by 
mentioning  the  fact  that  upwards  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand buffalo  robes  find  their  way  annually  into  the 
United  States  and  Canada;  and  these  are  the  skins  of 
cows  alone,  the  bull's  hide  being  so  thick  that  it  is 
never  dressed.  Besides  this,  the  Indians  kill  a  certain 
number  for  their  own  use,  exclusive  of  those  whose 
meat  they  require;  and  the  reckless  slaughter  of  buffalo 
b}^  parties  of  white  men,  emigrants  to  the  Columbia, 
California,  and  elsewhere,  leaving,  as  they  proceed  on 
their  journey,  thousands  of  untouched  carcases  on  the 
trail,  swells  the  aggregate  of  this  wholesale  destruction 
to  an  enormous  amount." 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  225 

The  keen  scent  of  the  buffalo  and  its  apparent  poor 
sight  were  noticed  by  Ruxton,  as  they  have  been  by 
so  many  others.  What  is  perhaps  not  generallj^  known, 
because  it  has  been  forgotten,  is  that  when  running, 
the  buffalo  commonly  swings  its  head  from  one  side 
to  the  other,  apparently  in  the  effort  to  see  what  is 
going  on  on  either  side  and  perhaps,  to  some  extent, 
behind  it.  Other  characteristics — its  harmlessness, 
and  its  occasional  unconcern  in  the  presence  of  danger 
— are  also  shown  here. 

"There  are  two  methods  of  hunting  buffalo — one  on 
horseback,  by  chasing  them  at  full  speed,  and  shooting 
when  alongside;  the  other  by  'still  hunting,'  that  is, 
*  approaching,'  or  stalking,  by  taking  advantage  of  the 
wind  and  any  cover  the  ground  affords,  and  crawling 
to  within  distance  of  the  feeding  herd.  The  latter 
method  exhibits  in  a  higher  degree  the  qualities  of  the 
hunter,  the  former  those  of  the  horseman.  The  buf- 
falo's head  is  so  thickly  thatched  with  long,  shaggy  hair 
that  the  animal  is  almost  precluded  from  seeing  an 
object  directly  in  its  front;  and  if  the  wind  be  against 
the  hunter  he  can  approach,  with  a  little  caution,  a 
buffalo  feeding  on  a  prairie  as  level  and  bare  as  a  bil- 
liard-table. Their  sense  of  smelling,  however,  is  so 
acute,  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  within  shot  when  to 
windward,  as,  at  the  distance  of  nearly  half  a  mile,  the 
animal  will  be  seen  to  snuff  the  tainted  air,  and  quickly 
satisfy  himself  of  the  vicinity  of  danger.  At  any  other 
than  the  season  of  gallantry,  when  the  males  are,  like 


226  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

all  other  animals,  disposed  to  be  pugnacious,  the  buf- 
falo is  a  quiet,  harmless  animal,  and  will  never  attack 
unless  goaded  to  madness  by  wounds,  or,  if  a  cow,  in 
sometimes  defending  its  calf  when  pursued  by  a  horse- 
man; but  even  then  it  is  seldom  that  they  make  any 
strong  effort  to  protect  their  young. 

*'When  gorged  with  water,  after  a  long  fast,  they  be- 
come so  lethargic  that  they  sometimes  are  too  careless 
to  run  and  avoid  danger.  One  evening,  just  before 
camping,  I  was,  as  usual,  in  advance  of  the  train,  when 
I  saw  three  bulls  come  out  of  the  river  and  walk  lei- 
surely across  the  trail,  stopping  occasionally,  and  one, 
more  indolent  than  the  rest,  lying  down  whenever  the 
others  halted.  Being  on  my  hunting-mule,  I  rode 
slowly  after  them,  the  lazy  one  stopping  behind  the 
others,  and  allowing  me  to  ride  within  a  dozen  paces, 
when  he  would  slowly  follow  the  rest.  Wishing  to  see 
how  near  I  could  get,  I  dismounted,  and,  rifle  in  hand, 
approached  the  bull,  who  at  last  stopped  short,  and 
never  even  looked  round,  so  that  I  walked  up  to  the 
animal  and  placed  my  hand  on  his  quarter.  Taking 
no  notice  of  me,  the  huge  beast  lay  down,  and  while  on 
the  ground  I  shot  him  dead.  On  butchering  the  car- 
case I  found  the  stomach  so  greatly  distended,  that 
another  pint  would  have  burst  it.  In  other  respects 
the  animal  was  perfectly  healthy  and  in  good  condi- 
tion. 

Ruxton  was  not  only  an  earnest  hunter  and  a  hardy 
traveller,  but  he  was  also  a  keen  observer,  and  living 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  227 

as  he  did  for  long  periods  in  the  open  air  and  among 
the  wild  animals,  he  saw  many  curious  things. 

"The  first  mountain-sheep  I  killed,  I  got  within  shot 
of  in  rather  a  curious  manner.  I  had  undertaken  sev- 
eral unsuccessful  hunts  for  the  purpose  of  procuring 
a  pair  of  horns  of  this  animal,  as  well  as  some  skins, 
which  are  of  excellent  quality  when  dressed,  but  had 
almost  given  up  any  hope  of  approaching  them,  when 
one  day,  having  killed  and  butchered  a  black-tail  deer 
in  the  mountains,  I  sat  down  with  my  back  to  a  small 
rock  and  fell  asleep.  On  awaking,  feeling  inclined  for 
a  smoke,  I  drew  from  my  pouch  a  pipe,  and  flint  and 
steel,  and  began  leisurely  to  cut  a  charge  of  tobacco. 
Whilst  thus  engaged  I  became  sensible  of  a  peculiar 
odour  which  was  wafted  right  into  my  face  by  the 
breeze,  and  which,  on  snuffing  it  once  or  twice,  I  imme- 
diately recognized  as  that  which  emanates  from  sheep 
and  goats.  Still  I  never  thought  that  one  of  the  former 
animals  could  be  in  the  neighbourhood,  for  my  mule 
was  picketed  on  the  little  plateau  where  I  sat,  and  was 
leisurely  cropping  the  bufFalo-grass  which  thickly  cov- 
ered it. 

"Looking  up  carelessly  from  my  work,  as  a  whifF 
stronger  than  before  reached  my  nose,  what  was  my 
astonishment  at  seeing  five  mountain-sheep  within  ten 
paces,  and  regarding  me  with  a  curious  and  astonished 
gaze!  Without  drawing  a  breath,  I  put  out  my  hand 
and  grasped  the  riHe,  which  was  lying  within  reach; 
but  the  motion,  shght  as  it  was,  sufficed  to  alarm  them, 


228  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

and  with  a  loud  bleat  the  old  ram  bounded  up  the 
mountain,  followed  by  the  band,  and  at  so  rapid  a  pace 
that  all  my  attempts  to  'draw  a  bead'  upon  them  were 
ineffectual.  When,  however,  they  reached  a  little 
plateau  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  where 
I  stood,  they  suddenly  stopped,  and,  approaching  the 
edge,  looked  down  at  me,  shaking  their  heads,  and 
bleating  their  displeasure  at  the  intrusion.  No  sooner 
did  I  see  them  stop  than  my  rifle  was  at  my  shoulder, 
and  covering  the  broadside  of  the  one  nearest  to  me. 
An  instant  after  and  I  pulled  the  trigger,  and  at  the 
report  the  sheep  jumped  convulsively  from  the  rock, 
and  made  one  attempt  to  follow  its  flying  companions; 
but  its  strength  failed,  and,  circling  round  once  or 
twice  at  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  it  fell  over  on  its  side, 
and,  rolling  down  the  steep  rock,  tumbled  dead  very 
near  me.  My  prize  proved  a  very  fine  young  male, 
but  had  not  a  large  pair  of  horns.  It  was,  however, 
*sear  fat,  and  afforded  me  a  choice  supply  of  meat, 
which  was  certainly  the  best  I  had  eaten  in  the  moun- 
tains, being  fat  and  juicy,  and  in  flavour  somewhat  par- 
taking both  of  the  domestic  sheep  and  buffalo." 

Among  other  notes  about  this  species  Ruxton  speaks 
of  several  attempts  that  had  been  made  to  secure  the 
young  of  mountain  sheep  and  transport  them  to  the 
States.  None  of  these,  however,  had  been  successful. 
Old  Bill  Williams  even  took  with  him  into  the  moun- 
tains a  troop  of  milch  goats,  by  which  to  bring  up  the 
young  sheep,  but,  though  capturing  a  number  of  lambs, 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  229 

he  did  not  succeed  in  reaching  the  frontier  with  a 
single  one. 

He  reports  also  the  superstition  of  the  Canadian 
trappers  concerning  the  carcajou,  which  we  know  as 
the  wolverene,  and  tells  of  a  reported  battle  which  an 
old  Canadian  trapper  said  that  he  had  had  with  one 
of  these  animals,  and  which  lasted  upward  of  two 
hours,  during  which  he  fired  a  pouchful  of  balls  into 
the  animal's  body,  which  spat  them  out  as  fast  as  they 
were  shot  in.  Two  days  later,  in  company  with  the 
same  man,  the  author,  in  looking  over  a  ridge,  saw  a 
wolverene,  and  shot  at  it,  as  it  was  running  off,  without 
effect.  For  this  he  was  derided  by  the  Canadian,  who 
declared  that  if  he  had  shot  fifty  balls  at  the  carcajou 
it  would  not  have  cared  at  all. 

One  night,  when  camped  on  the  Platte,  the  author 
woke  up,  and  looking  out  of  his  blanket,  saw  sitting 
before  the  fire  a  huge  gray  wolf,  his  eyes  closed  and 
his  head  nodding  in  sheer  drowsiness. 

The  last  day  of  April,  Ruxton  set  out  to  cross  the 
plains  for  Fort  Leavenworth,  intending  to  return  to 
England.  Soon  afterward  they  reached  Bent's  Fort, 
and  a  little  later  were  joined  by  a  number  of  Fremont's 
men,  and  by  Kit  Carson,  who  were  returning  from 
Cahfornia.  They  passed  a  Cheyenne  camp,  and  before 
very  long  were  well  out  on  the  plains  and  in  the  buffalo 
country.  Concerning  the  abundance  of  these  animals 
Ruxton  tells  the  same  extraordinary  stories  that  all 
old-timers  relate.     He  hunted   buffalo  both   by  "ap- 


230  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

proaching"  and  by  running;  and  tried  many  experi- 
ments with  these  great  beasts.  One  night  the  camp 
was  almost  run  down  by  a  vast  herd  of  buffalo,  but  all 
hands  being  aroused,  they  managed,  by  firing  their 
guns  and  making  all  the  noise  they  could,  to  spHt  the 
herd,  so  that  the  two  branches  passed  around  them. 

At  length  the  party  approached  Council  Grove,  and 
the  more  humid  country,  where  the  eastern  timber 
was  found,  which,  to  Ruxton  and  to  the  Missourians 
of  the  party,  looked  like  old  friends. 

Ruxton  was  a  true  outdoor  man,  loving  the  wilder- 
ness for  itself  alone,  accepting  whatever  of  toil,  expo- 
sure, or  hardship  might  come  to  him,  feeling  amply 
repaid  for  these  annoyances  by  the  joy  of  independ- 
ence, of  the  beauties  that  surrounded  him,  and  of  the 
absolute  physical  well-being  which  was  a  part  of  this 
Ufe. 

The  days  when  an  existence  such  as  is  pictured  in 
his  accounts  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  could  be  enjoyed 
are  long  past,  yet  there  are  still  living  some  men  who 
can  absolutely  sympathize  with  the  feeling  expressed 
in  the  following  paragraphs: 

"Apart  from  the  feeling  of  loneliness  which  any  one 
in  my  situation  must  naturally  have  experienced,  sur- 
rounded by  stupendous  works  of  nature,  which  in  all 
their  solitary  grandeur  frowned  upon  me,  and  sinking 
into  utter  insignificance  the  miserable  mortal  who 
crept  beneath  their  shadow;  still  there  was  something 
inexpressibly  exhilarating  in  the  sensation  of  positive 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  231 

freedom  from  all  worldly  care,  and  a  consequent  ex- 
pansion of  the  sinews,  as  it  were,  of  mind  and  body, 
which  made  me  feel  elastic  as  a  ball  of  Indian  rubber, 
and  in  a  state  of  such  perfect  insouciance  that  no  more 
dread  of  scalping  Indians  entered  my  mind  than  if  I 
had  been  sitting  in  Broadway,  in  one  of  the  windows  of 
Astor  House.  A  citizen  of  the  world,  I  never  found 
any  difficulty  in  investing  my  resting-place,  wherever 
it  might  be,  with  all  the  attributes  of  a  home;  and  hailed, 
with  delight  equal  to  that  which  the  artificial  comforts 
of  a  civilized  home  would  have  caused,  the,  to  me,  do- 
mestic appearance  of  my  hobbled  animals,  as  they 
grazed  around  the  camp,  when  I  returned  after  a  hard 
day's  hunt.  By  the  way,  I  may  here  remark,  that  my 
sporting  feeling  underwent  a  great  change  when  I  was 
necessitated  to  follow  and  kill  game  for  the  support  of 
Hfe,  and  as  a  means  of  subsistence;  and  the  slaughter 
of  deer  and  buffalo  no  longer  became  sport  when  the 
object  was  to  fill  the  larder,  and  the  excitement  of  the 
hunt  was  occasioned  by  the  alternative  of  a  plentiful 
feast  or  a  banyan;  and,  although  ranking  underthe  head 
of  the  most  red-hot  of  sportsmen,  I  can  safely  acquit 
myself  of  ever  wantonly  destroying  a  deer  or  buffalo 
unless  I  was  in  need  of  meat;  and  such  consideration 
for  the  ferae  naturae  is  common  to  all  the  mountaineers 
who  look  to  game  alone  for  their  support.  Although 
liable  to  an  accusation  of  barbarism,  I  must  confess  that 
the  very  happiest  moments  of  my  life  have  been  spent 
in  the  wilderness  of  the  far  West;  and  I  never  recall 


232  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

but  with  pleasure  the  remembrance  of  my  solitary 
camp  in  the  Bayou  Salado,  with  no  friend  near  me 
more  faithful  than  my  rifle,  and  no  companions  more 
sociable  than  my  good  horse  and  mules,  or  the  attend- 
ant coyote  which  nightly  serenaded  us.  With  a  plenti- 
ful supply  of  dry  pine-logs  on  the  fire,  and  its  cheerful 
blaze  streaming  far  up  into  the  sky,  illuminating  the 
valley  far  and  near,  and  exhibiting  the  animals,  with 
well-filled  bellies,  standing  contentedly  at  rest  over 
their  picket-pins,  I  would  sit  cross-legged  enjoying  the 
genial  warmth,  and,  pipe  in  mouth,  watch  the  blue 
smoke  as  it  curled  upwards,  building  castles  in  its  va- 
poury wreaths,  and,  in  the  fantastic  shapes  it  assumed, 
peopling  the  solitude  with  figures  of  those  far  away. 
Scarcely,  however,  did  I  ever  wish  to  change  such  hours 
of  freedom  for  all  the  luxuries  of  civilized  Hfe,  and,  un- 
natural and  extraordinary  as  it  may  appear,  yet  such 
is  the  fascination  of  the  life  of  the  mountain  hunter, 
that  I  believe  not  one  instance  could  be  adduced  of  even 
the  most  polished  and  civilized  of  men,  who  had  once 
tasted  the  sweets  of  its  attendant  liberty  and  freedom 
from  every  worldly  care,  not  regretting  the  moment 
when  he  exchanged  it  for  the  monotonous  life  of  the 
settlements,  nor  sighing,  and  sighing  again,  once  more 
to  partake  of  its  pleasures  and  allurements. 

"Nothing  can  be  more  social  and  cheering  than  the 
welcome  blaze  of  the  camp  fire  on  a  cold  winter's  night, 
and  nothing  more  amusing  or  entertaining,  if  not  in- 
structive, than  the  rough  conversation  of  the  single- 


George  Frederick  Ruxton  233 

minded  mountaineers,  whose  simple  daily  talk  is  all  of 
exciting  adventure,  since  their  whole  existence  is  spent 
in  scenes  of  peril  and  privation;  and  consequently  the 
narration  of  their  every-day  life  is  a  tale  of  thrilling 
accidents  and  hairbreadth  'scapes,  which,  though  simple 
matter-of-fact  to  them,  appear  a  startling  romance  to 
those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the 
lives  led  by  these  men,  who,  with  the  sky  for  a  roof 
and  their  rifles  to  supply  them  with  food  and  clothing, 
call  no  man  lord  or  master,  and  are  free  as  the  game 
they  follow." 

Some  little  time  was  spent  at  Fort  Leavenworth, 
where  Ruxton  found  the  change  from  the  free  life  of 
prairie  and  mountain  very  unpleasant.  He  suffered 
still  more  when  he  reached  St.  Louis,  and  was  obliged 
to  assume  the  confining  garb  of  civihzation,  and  above 
all,  to  put  his  feet  into  shoes. 

Ruxton's  journey  from  St.  Louis  to  New  York  was 
uneventful,  and  in  July  he  left  for  England,  which  he 
reached  in  the  middle  of  August,  1847. 

It  was  after  this  that  he  wrote  a  series  of  sketches, 
entitled  "Life  in  the  Far  West,"  which  were  afterward 
published  in  Blackwood'' s  Magazine^  and  finally  in 
book  form  in  England  and  America.  These  sketches 
purport  to  give  the  adventures  of  a  trapper.  La  Bonte, 
during  fifteen  years'  wandering  in  the  mountains,  and 
set  forth  trapper  and  mountain  Hfe  of  the  day.  They 
show  throughout  the  greatest  familiarity  with  the  old- 
time  life.     The  author's  effort  to  imitate  the  dialect 


234  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

spoken  by  the  trappers  makes  the  conversation  not 
always  easy  to  read;  but  they  are  most  interesting  as 
faithful  pictures  of  life  in  the  mountains  between  1830 
and  1840 — at  the  end  of  the  days  of  the  beaver. 


A  BOY  IN  INDIAN  CAMPS 


A  BOY  IN  INDIAN  CAMPS 
I 

AMONG  THE  CHEYENNES 

ONE  of  the  most  charming  books  written  about 
the  early  plains  is  Lewis  H.  Garrard's  Wah- 
To-Yah  and  the  Taos  Trail.  It  is  the  narra- 
tive of  a  boy,  only  seventeen  years  old,  who,  in  1846, 
travelled  westward  from  St.  Louis  with  a  train  led  by 
Mr.  St.  Vrain,  of  the  firm  of  Bent,  St.  Vrain  &  Co.,  and 
after  some  time  spent  on  the  plains  and  in  Cheyenne 
camps,  proceeded  westward  to  New  Mexico  and  there 
saw  and  heard  of  many  of  the  events  just  antecedent  to 
the  Mexican  War. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  book,  which,  in  its 
interest  and  its  fidelity  to  nature  and  to  early  times, 
equals  the  far  more  celebrated  California  and  Ore- 
gon Trail  of  Parkman,  tells  of  the  events  of  the  same 
year  as  Parkman's  volume,  but  deals  with  a  country 
to  the  south  of  that  traversed  by  him  who  was  to  be- 
come one  of  the  greatest  historians  of  America.  The 
charm  of  each  volume  lies  in  its  freshness.     Neither 

237 


238  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

could  have  been  written  except  by  one  who  saw  things 
with  the  enthusiastic  eyes  of  youth,  who  entered  upon 
each  adventure  with  youth's  enthusiasm,  and  who  told 
his  story  with  the  frankness  and  simplicity  of  one  who 
was  very  young.  After  all,  the  greatest  charm  of  any 
literature  Hes  in  the  simplicity  with  which  the  story  is 
told,  and  in  both  these  dehghtful  volumes  is  found  this 
attractive  quality. 

Garrard  reached  St.  Louis  on  his  way  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains  in  July,  1846,  and  there  became  acquainted 
with  the  firm  of  Pierre  Chouteau,  Jr.,  &  Co.,  so  well 
known  in  the  fur  trade  of  the  West.  Here,  too,  he 
met  Kenneth  McKenzie,  one  of  the  first  traders  with 
the  Blackfeet  Indians,  and  Mr.  St.  Vrain. 

To  the  modern  reader  it  seems  odd  to  see  It  stated 
in  the  first  two  lines  of  the  book  that  a  part  of  the 
necessary  preparations  for  the  trip  before  him  was  the 
"laying  in  a  good  store  of  caps,  fine  glazed  powder, 
etc.,"  but  In  those  days  the  percussion  cap  was  still  a 
new  thing,  and  of  the  guns  used  west  of  the  Missouri 
River  the  great  majority  still  used  the  flint  to  strike 
fire  to  the  charge. 

Besides  Garrard,  there  were  others  in  St.  Vrain's 
company,  who  were  new  to  the  plains.  Of  these  one 
was  Drinker,  a  Cincinnati  editor;  another,  a  Mr.  Chad- 
wick.  Besides  these  there  were  General  Lee  of  St. 
Louis,  a  friend  or  two  of  St.  Vrain's,  and  various  em- 
ployees of  the  traders. 

Bent's  train  was  encamped  not  far  from  Westport, 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  239 

and  here  Garrard  got  his  first  taste  of  wild  Hfe,  sleeping 
on  the  ground  in  the  open.  Here,  too,  he  saw  his  first 
Indians,  the  Wyandottes,  who,  in  1843,  had  been 
moved  westward  from  their  homes  in  Ohio.  Here,  of 
course,  he  met  those  who  for  months  were  to  be  his 
travelling  companions,  and  he  paints  us  a  fresh  picture 
of  them  in  these  pleasing  words: 

"There  were  eighteen  or  twenty  Canadian  French- 
men (principally  from  St.  Louis)  composing  part  of 
our  company,  as  drivers  of  the  teams.  As  I  have  ever 
been  a  lover  of  sweet,  simple  music,  their  beautiful 
and  piquant  songs  in  the  original  language  fell  most 
harmoniously  on  the  ear,  as  we  lay  wrapped  in  our 
blankets. 

"On  the  first  of  September,  Mr.  St.  Vrain's  arrival 
infused  some  life  into  our  proceedings,  but  nothing 
more  worthy  of  note  occurred,  except  riding  and  look- 
ing at  horses,  of  which  Drinker  and  I  were  in  need; 
one  of  which,  Frank  De  Lisle,  He  maitre  de  wagon^ 
sold  me  for  fifty  dollars,  whom,  from  his  fanciful  color, 
brown  and  white  spots,  and  white  eyes,  was  designated 
by  the  descriptive  though  not  euphonious  name  of, 
'Paint.'  He  was  a  noted  buffalo  chaser,  and  I  antici- 
pated much  excitement  through  his  services. 

"The  way  the  mules  were  broken  to  wagon  harness 
would  have  astonished  the  'full-blooded'  animals  of 
Kentucky  and  other  horse-raising  States  exceedingly. 
It  was  a  treatment  none  but  hardy  Mexican  or  scrub 
mules  could  survive.     They  first  had  to  be  lassoed  by 


240  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

our  expert  Mexican,  Bias,  their  heads  drawn  up  to  a 
wagon  wheel,  with  scarce  two  inches  of  spare  rope  to 
relax  the  tight  noose  on  their  necks,  and  starved  for 
twenty-four  hours  to  subdue  their  fiery  tempers;  then 
harnessed  to  a  heavy  wagon,  lashed  unmercifully  when 
they  did  not  pull,  whipped  still  harder  when  they  ran 
into  still  faster  speed,  until,  after  an  hour's  bewilder- 
ment, and  plunging  and  kicking,  they  became  tract- 
able and  broken  down — a  labor-saving  operation,  with 
the  unflinching  motto  of  'kill  or  cure.' 

The  pulhng  out  of  the  train  from  near  Westport  was 
an  interesting  and  exciting  event.  Teamsters  were 
shouting  to  their  newly  yoked  bulls;  the  herders  were 
driving  along  the  caballada;  mounted  men  were  hurry- 
ing back  and  forth;  the  leader  of  the  company  and  his 
wagon-master  were  constantly  passing  to  and  fro  from 
one  end  of  the  train  to  the  other,  seeing  how  things 
went,  and  looking  for  weak  spots  among  the  teams  and 
the  wagons.  A  few  days  later  came  the  first  rain-storm 
— a  dismal  occasion  to  the  young  traveller  on  the 
plains.  There  are  few  old  plainsmen  but  can  still 
recall  something  of  the  discomfort  of  a  long  day's 
travel  in  the  storm;  of  the  camping  at  night  with  clo- 
thing thoroughly  wet  and  bodies  thoroughly  chilled, 
and  the  sitting  or  lying,  or  perhaps  even  sleeping  in  the 
wet  clothing.  "The  wagons  being  full  of  goods,  and  we 
without  tents,  a  cheerless,  chilling,  soaking,  wet  night 
was  the  consequence.  As  the  water  penetrated,  suc- 
cessively, my  blanket,  coat,  and  shirt,  and   made   its 


A  Boy  In  Indian  Camps  241 

way  down  my  back,  a  cold  shudder  came  over  me;  in 
the  gray,  foggy  morning  a  more  pitiable  set  of  hungry, 
shaking  wretches  were  never  seen.  Oh !  but  it  was  hard 
on  the  poor  greenhorns!" 

At  Council  Grove,  which  they  reached  the  last  of 
September,  the  train  remained  for  two  days,  and  as 
this  was  the  last  place  travelling  westward  where  hard- 
wood could  be  procured,  the  men  felled  hickories  and 
oaks  for  spare  axle-trees,  and  swung  the  pieces  under 
their  wagons.  Young  Garrard  was  an  eager  hunter, 
and  set  out  from  camp  in  search  of  wild  turkeys,  whose 
cries  he  could  hear,  but  he  got  none. 

Here  is  another  picture  of  that  early  life  which  may 
call  up  in  the  minds  of  some  readers  pleasant  memories 
of  early  days  when  they,  too,  were  a  part  of  such  things : 
*'So  soon  as  a  faint  streak  of  light  appears  in  the  east, 
the  cry  Hum  out'  is  given  by  De  Lisle;  all  rise,  and, 
in  half  an  hour,  the  oxen  are  yoked,  hitched  and  started. 
For  the  purpose  of  bringing  everything  within  a  small 
compass,  the  wagons  are  corralled;  that  is,  arranged 
in  the  form  of  a  pen,  when  camp  is  made;  and  as  no 
animals  in  that  country  are  caught  without  a  lasso,  they 
are  much  easier  noosed  if  driven  in  the  corral.  There, 
no  dependence  must  be  placed  in  any  but  one's  self; 
and  the  sooner  he  rises,  when  the  cry  is  given,  the 
easier  can  he  get  his  horse. 

"Like  all  persons  on  the  first  trip,  I  was  green  in  the 
use  of  the  lasso,  and  Paint  was  given  to  all  sorts  of 
malicious  dodging;  perhaps  I  have  not  worked  myself 


242  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

into  a  profuse  perspiration  with  vexation  a  hundred 
and  one  times,  in  vain  attempts  to  trap  him. 

"Not  being  able  to  catch  my  horse  this  morning,  I 
hung  my  saddle  on  a  wagon  and  walked,  talking  to  the 
loquacious  Canadians,  whose  songs  and  stories  were 
most  acceptable.  They  are  a  queer  mixture,  anyhow, 
these  Canadians;  rain  or  shine,  hungry  or  satisfied, 
they  are  the  same  garrulous,  careless  fellows;  generally 
caroling  in  honor  of  some  brunette  Vide  Poche,  or  St. 
Louis  Creole  beauty,  or  lauding,  in  the  words  of  their 
ancestry,  the  soft  skies  and  grateful  wine  of  La  Belle 
France,  occasionally  uttering  a  sacrc^  or  enfant  de  garce^ 
but  suffering  no  cloud  of  ill  humor  to  overshadow  them 
but  for  a  moment.  While  walking  with  a  languid  step, 
cheering  up  their  slow  oxen,  a  song  would  burst  out 
from  one  end  of  the  train  to  the  other,  producing  a 
most  charming  effect." 

The  train  was  now  approaching  the  buffalo  range, 
and  before  long  several  buffalo  were  seen.  Now,  too, 
they  had  reached  a  country  where  '^hois  de  vaches^^ — 
buffalo  chips — were  used  for  fuel,  and  the  collecting  of 
this  was  a  part  of  the  daily  work  after  camp  was  made. 
More  and  more  buffalo  were  seen,  and  before  long  we 
hear  of  the  plain  literally  covered  with  them,  and  now, 
as  buffalo  were  killed  more  often,  Garrard  is  introduced 
to  a  prairie  dish  which  no  one  will  ever  eat  again.  He 
says:  "The  men  ate  the  liver  raw,  with  a  slight  dash  of 
gall  by  way  of  zest,  which,  served  a  la  Indian,  was  not 
very  tempting  to  cloyed  appetites;  but  to  hungry  men, 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  243 

not  at  all  squeamish,  raw,  warm  liver,  with  raw  mar- 
row, was  quite  palatable. 

"It  would  not  do,"  he  continues,  *'for  small  hunt- 
ing parties  to  build  fires  to  cook  with;  for,  in  this  hos- 
tile Indian  country,  a  smoke  would  bring  inquiring 
friends.  Speaking  of  hostile  Indians,  reminds  me  of  a 
question  related  by  one  of  our  men:  at  a  party,  in  a 
Missouri  frontier  settlement,  a  lady  asked  a  moun- 
taineer, fresh  from  the  Platte,  *  if  hostile  Indians  are  as 
savage  as  those  who  serve  on  foot!' 

"Returning  to  camp  the  prairie  was  black  with  the 
herds;  and,  a  good  chance  presenting  itself,  I  struck 
spurs  into  Paint,  directing  him  toward  fourteen  or 
fifteen  of  the  nearest,  distant  eight  or  nine  hundred 
yards.  We  (Paint  and  I)  soon  neared  them,  giving  me 
a  flying  view  of  their  unwieldy  proportions,  and,  when 
within  fifteen  feet  of  the  nearest  I  raised  my  rifle  half 
way  to  the  face  and  fired.  Reloading,  still  in  hot  pur- 
suit (tough  work  to  load  on  a  full  run),  I  followed, 
though  without  catching  up.  One  feels  a  delightfully 
wild  sensation  when  in  pursuit  of  a  band  of  buff'alo, 
on  a  fleet  horse,  with  a  good  rifle,  and  without  a  hat, 
the  winds  playing  around  the  flushed  brow,  when  with 
hair  streaming,  the  rider  nears  the  frightened  herd, 
and,  with  a  shout  of  exultation,  discharges  his  rifle.  I 
returned  to  the  party  highly  gratified  with  my  first, 
though  unsuccessful,  chase,  but  Mr.  St.  Vrain  put  a 
slight  damper  to  my  ardor,  by  simply  remarking — 

"'The  next  time  you  "run  meat"  don't  let  the  horse 


244  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

go  in  a  trot  and  yourself  in  a  gallop '  (I  had,  in  my  eager- 
ness, leaned  forward  in  the  saddle,  and  a  stumble  of 
the  horse  would  have  pitched  me  over  his  head);  by 
which  well-timed  and  laconic  advice,  I  afterward  prof- 
ited." 

From  this  time  on  there  was  much  chasing  of  buffalo, 
but  httle  kilHng  of  them,  except  by  the  old  hands.  The 
young  ones,  of  course,  neither  knew  how  to  shoot  nor 
where  to  shoot,  and  our  author  naively  remarks,  after 
one  of  his  chases:  "To  look  at  a  buffalo,  one  would 
think  that  they  could  not  run  with  such  rapidity;  but, 
let  him  try  to  follow  with  an  ordinary  horse,  and  he  is 
soon  undeceived." 

During  the  efforts  of  the  greenhorns  to  kill  buffalo 
this  incident  occurred:  "Mr.  Chadwick  (of  St.  Louis, 
on  his  first  trip,  like  several  of  us,  for  pleasure), 
seeing  a  partially  blind  bull,  concluded  to  'make  meat' 
of  him;  crawHng  up  close,  the  buffalo  scented  him 
and  pitched  about  every  way,  too  blind  to  travel 
straight  or,  fast.  Chad  fired;  the  mad  animal,  di- 
rected by  the  rifle  report,  charged.  How  they  did 
Mick  it'  over  the  ground!  He  pursued,  yelling,  half  in 
excitement,  half  in  fear,  till  they  were  close  to  the 
wagons,  where  the  pursuer  changed  tack,  only  to  be 
shot  by  one  of  the  teamsters  with  a  nor'-west  fusil." 

It  is  natural  enough  that  the  boy  author,  while 
travelling  for  the  first  time  through  the  buffalo  range, 
should  think  and  write  chiefly  about  buffalo,  yet  he 
finds  time  to  tell  of  the   prairie-dog   towns   through 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  245 

which  they  passed,  and  of  the  odd  ways  of  the  dogs  and 
the  curious  apparent  companionship  or  at  least  co- 
habitation of  the  snakes  and  the  prairie  owls  with 
them.  As  they  passed  through  this  region  north  of 
the  Arkansas  in  the  hot,  dry  weather  of  the  early  fall, 
they  suffered  sometimes  from  thirst.  The  first  grave 
passed  by  the  train  aroused  melancholy  and  sympa- 
thetic feelings  in  the  boy's  heart. 

One  day  Garrard  went  out  hunting  with  Mr.  St. 
Vrain  and  another,  and  a  band  of  buffalo  were  dis- 
covered on  their  way  to  water.  Here  Garrard  first 
found  himself  near  a  wounded  bull,  and  the  picture 
that  he  paints  of  the  monster  is  a  true  and  a  striking 
one.  "Mr.  St.  Vrain,  dismounting,  took  his  rifle,  and 
soon  was  on  the  'approach,'  leaving  us  cached  behind 
a  rise  of  the  ground  to  await  the  gun  report.  We  laid 
down  with  our  blankets,  which  we  always  carried 
strapped  to  the  saddle,  and,  with  backs  to  the  wind, 
talked  in  a  low  tone,  until  hearing  Mr.  St.  Vrain's  gun, 
when  we  remounted.  Again  and  again  the  rifle  was 
heard,  in  hasty  succession,  and  hastening  to  him,  we 
found  a  fat  cow  stretched,  and  a  wounded  male  limp- 
ing slowly  off.  The  animals  were  tied  to  the  horns 
of  our  cow;  and,  with  butcher  knives,  we  divested  the 
body  of  its  fine  coat;  but,  finding  myself  a  'green  hand,' 
at  least  not  an  adept,  in  the  mysteries  of  prairie  butch- 
ering, I  mounted  Paint  for  the  wounded  fellow,  who 
had  settled  himself,  with  his  fore  legs  doubled  under 
him,  three  hundred  yards  from  us.     Mine  was  a  high 


246  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

pommeled,  Mexican  saddle,  with  wooden  stirrups;  and, 
when  once  seated,  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  be  dis- 
lodged. Paint  went  up  within  twenty  yards  of  the 
growling,  wounded,  gore-covered  bull,  and  there  stood 
trembling,  and  imparting  some  of  his  fear  to  myself. 

''With  long,  shaggy,  dirt-matted,  and  tangled  locks 
falling  over  his  glaring,  diabohcal  eyes,  blood  stream- 
ing from  nose  and  mouth,  he  made  the  most  ferocious 
looking  object  it  is  possible  to  conceive;  and,  if  nurses 
could  portray  to  obstinate  children  in  true  colors  the 
description  of  a  mad  buffalo  bull,  the  oft-repeated 
'bugaboo'  would  soon  be  an  obsolete  idea. 

"While  looking  with  considerable  trepidation  on  the 
vanquished  monarch  of  the  Pawnee  plains,  he  started 
to  his  feet;  and,  with  a  jump,  materially  lessened  the 
distance  between  us,  which  so  scared  Paint  that  he 
reared  backward,  nearly  sliding  myself  and  gun  over 
his  tail;  and  before  the  bridle  rein  could  be  tightened, 
ran  some  rods;  but,  turning  his  head,  and  setting  the 
rowels  of  my  spurs  in  his  flanks,  I  dashed  up  within 
thirty  feet  of  the  bull;  and  at  the  crack  of  the  gun,  the 
'poor  buffler'  dropped  his  head,  his  skin  convulsively 
shook,  his  dark  eyes,  no  longer  fired  with  malignancy, 
rolled  back  in  the  sockets,  and  his  spirit  departed  for 
the  region  of  perpetual  verdure  and  running  waters, 
beyond  the  reach  of  white  man's  rifle  or  the  keen  lance 
of  the  prairie  warrior." 

And  then  the  picture  with  which  he  closes  the 
chapter  covering  the  march  through  the  buffalo  range! 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  247 

How  boyish,  and  vet  how  charming  and  how  true 
it  is! 

"Good  humor  reigned  triumphant  throughout 
camp.  Canadian  songs  of  mirth  filled  the  air;  and  at 
every  mess  fire,  pieces  of  meat  were  cooking  en  appolas; 
that  is,  on  a  stick  sharpened,  with  alternate  fat  and 
lean  meat,  making  a  dehcious  roast.  Among  others, 
houdins  were  roasting  without  any  previous  culinary 
operation,  but  the  tying  of  both  ends,  to  prevent  the 
fat,  as  it  was  liquified,  from  wasting;  and  when  pro- 
nounced *good'  by  the  hungry,  impatient  judges,  it 
was  taken  ofF  the  hot  coals,  puffed  up  with  the  heat 
and  fat,  the  steam  escaping  from  little  punctures,  and 
coiled  on  the  ground,  or  a  not  particularly  clean  sad- 
dle blanket,  looking  for  all  the  world  hke  a  dead  snake. 

"The  fortunate  owner  shouts,  'Hyar's  the  doin's, 
and  hyar's  the  'coon  as  savys  "poor  bull"  from  "fat 
cow";  freeze  into  it,  boys!'  And  all  fall  to,  with  ready 
knives,  cutting  off  savory  pieces  of  this  exquisitely  ap- 
petizing prairie  production. 

"At  our  mess  fire  there  was  a  whole  side  of  ribs 
roasted.  When  browned  thoroughly  we  handled  the 
long  bones,  and  as  the  generous  fat  dripped  on  our 
clothes,  we  heeded  it  not,  our  minds  wrapped  up  with 
the  one  absorbing  thought  of  satisfying  our  relentless 
appetites;  progressing  in  the  work  of  demolition,  our 
eyes  closed  with  ineffable  bliss.  Talk  of  an  em- 
peror's table — why,  they  could  imagine  nothing  half 
so  good!    The  meal  ended,   the  pipe  lent  its  aid  to 


248  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

complete  our  happiness,  and,  at  night  we  retired  to 
the  comfortable  blankets,  wanting  nothing,  caring  for 
nothing." 

Late  in  October  the  train  met  with  the  advance 
guard  of  a  party  of  Cheyenne  warriors,  then  on  the  war- 
path for  scalps  and  horses  against  the  Pawnee  nation. 
These  were  the  first  really  wild  Indians  that  Garrard 
had  seen,  and  their  picturesqueness  and  unusual  ap- 
pearance greatly  interested  him.  In  those  days  the 
Cheyennes  had  never  been  at  war  with  the  white  peo- 
ple, and  they  were  on  terms  of  especial  friendliness 
with  Bent  and  St.  Vrain,  from  whose  trading  posts 
they  obtained  their  supplies.  A  little  later,  on  the 
way  to  Bent's  Fort,  they  passed  a  Cheyenne  medicine 
lodge,  with  its  sweat-house,  and  later  still  Indian 
graves  on  scaffolds  which  rested  on  the  horizontal 
limbs  of  the  cottonwood  trees.  A  day  or  two  after 
this  they  reached  Fort  William,  or  Bent's  Fort,  where 
they  met  William  Bent,  in  his  day  one  of  the  best- 
known  men  of  the  southern  plains.  A  few  days  were 
spent  there,  and  then  came  the  most  interesting  ad- 
venture that  the  boy  had  had. 

Early  in  November  he  started  for  the  Cheyenne 
village  with  John  Smith,  who,  with  his  wife,  his  little 
boy  Jack,  and  a  Canadian,  were  setting  out  for  the 
village  to  trade  for  robes. 

John  Smith  is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  white 
man  ever  to  learn  the  Cheyenne  language,  so  as  to  be 
able  to  interpret  it  into  English.     When  he  made  his 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  249 

appearance  on  the  plains  we  do  not  know,  but  he  was 
there  in  the  '30's,  and  for  many  years  was  employed 
by  Bent  and  St.  Vrain  to  follow  the  Indians  about 
and  trade  with  them  for  robes.  Early  in  his  life  on  the 
plains  he  had  married  a  Cheyenne  woman  and  estab- 
hshed  intimate  relations  with  the  tribe,  among  whom 
he  remained  for  many  years.  He  was  present  in  the 
camp  of  the  Cheyennes  during  the  Chivington  massacre 
at  Sand  Creek,  in  1864,  at  which  time  his  son.  Jack, 
the  child  mentioned  by  Garrard  in  this  volume,  was 
killed  by  the  soldiers,  being  shot  in  the  back  by  a  sol- 
dier who  saw  his  shadow  on  the  lodge  skins  and  fired 
at  it.  It  is  said  that  John  Smith  himself  came  very 
near  being  killed,  and  had  a  hard  time  in  talking  the 
Colorado  soldiers  out  of  killing  him.  He  has  a  son 
now  living  at  Pine  Ridge. 

The  small  party  journeyed  on  toward  the  village, 
and  while  Pierre,  the  Canadian,  drove  the  wagon,  and 
the  woman  and  her  child  rode  in  silence.  Smith  and 
Garrard  kept  up  a  lively  conversation.  Smith  was 
anxious  to  learn  all  about  the  *' States"  and  life  there, 
while  Garrard  replied  to  him  with  inquiries  about 
Indians  and  their  ways.  And  so,  day  after  day,  they 
journeyed  over  the  plain  until  the  cone-shaped  lodges 
of  the  village  came  in  sight,  to  be  reached  a  few  hours 
later.  Riding  into  the  camp,  they  halted  at  the  lodge 
of  one  of  the  principal  men,  and  unsaddling  and  un- 
packing their  animals  there,  entered  it  with  their  goods, 
and  according  to  custom  estabhshed  themselves  in  the 


250  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

back  part,  which  was  at  once  given  up  to  them  by  the 
host.  And  now  began  an  entirely  new  life  for  Garrard 
— a  life  into  which  he  threw  himself  with  the  whole- 
hearted enthusiasm  of  a  healthy  lad,  and  which  he 
thoroughly  enjoyed.  The  days  and  evenings  in  the 
camp;  the  moving  from  place  to  place  over  the  prairie; 
the  misfortunes  which  happened  to  the  men  unaccus- 
tomed to  such  life,  are  all  described.  Vivid  glimpses 
of  the  marching  Indian  column  are  given  in  the  follow- 
ing paragraphs: 

"The  young  squaws  take  much  care  of  their  dress 
and  horse  equipments;  they  dashed  furiously  past 
on  wild  steeds,  astride  of  the  high-pommeled  saddles. 
A  fancifully  colored  cover,  worked  with  beads  or 
porcupine  quills,  making  a  flashy,  striking  appearance, 
extended  from  withers  to  rump  of  the  horse,  while 
the  riders  evinced  an  admirable  daring,  worthy  of 
Amazons.  Their  dresses  were  made  of  buckskin,  high 
at  the  neck,  short  sleeves,  or  rather  none  at  all,  fitting 
loosely,  and  reaching  obliquely  to  the  knee,  giving  a 
relieved,  Diana  look  to  the  costume;  the  edges  scalloped, 
worked  with  beads,  and  fringed.  From  the  knee,  down- 
ward, the  limb  was  encased  in  a  tightly  fitting  leggin, 
terminating  in  a  neat  moccasin — both  handsomely 
worked  with  beads.  On  the  arms  were  bracelets  of 
brass,  which  glittered  and  reflected  in  the  radiant, 
morning  sun,  adding  much  to  their  attractions.  In 
their  pierced  ears,  shells  from  the  Pacific  shore,  were 
pendant;  and,  to  complete  the  picture  of  savage  taste 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  251 

and  profusion,  their  fine  complexions  were  eclipsed  by 
a  coat  of  flaming  vermillion. 

"Many  of  the  largest  dogs  were  packed  with  a 
small  quantity  of  meat,  or  something  not  easily  injured. 
They  looked  queerly,  trotting  industriously  under  their 
burdens;  and,  judging  from  a  small  stock  of  canine 
physiological  information,  not  a  little  of  the  wolf  was 
in  their  composition.  These  dogs  are  extremely  mus- 
cular and  are  compactly  built. 

**We  crossed  the  river  on  our  way  to  the  new  camp. 
The  alarm  manifested  by  the  ki-kun  (children)  in  the 
lodge-pole  drays,  as  they  dipped  in  the  water,  was 
amusing;  the  little  fellows,  holding  their  breaths,  not 
daring  to  cry,  looked  imploringly  at  their  inexorable 
mothers,  and  were  encouraged  by  words  of  approba- 
tion from  their  stern  fathers.  Regaining  the  grassy 
bottom,  we  once  more  went  in  a  fast  walk. 

"The  diff'erent  colored  horses,  the  young  Indian 
beaux,  the  bold,  bewildering  belles,  and  the  newness 
of  the  scene  were  gratifying  in  the  extreme  to  my  un- 
accustomed senses.  After  a  ride  of  two  hours  we 
stopped,  and  the  chiefs,  fastening  their  horses,  col- 
lected in  circles,  to  smoke  the  pipe  and  talk,  letting 
their  squaws  unpack  the  animals,  pitch  the  lodges, 
build  fires,  arrange  the  robes,  and,  when  all  was  ready, 
these  'lords  of  creation'  dispersed  to  their  several 
homes  to  wait  until  their  patient  and  enduring  spouses 
prepared  some  food.  I  was  provoked,  nay,  angry,  to 
see  the  lazy,  overgrown  men,  do  nothing  to  help  their 


252  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

wives;  and,  when  the  young  women  pulled  off  their 
bracelets  and  finery,  to  chop  wood,  the  cup  of  my 
wrath  was  full  to  overflowing,  and,  in  a  fit  of  honest 
indignation,  I  pronounced  them  ungallant  and  savage 
in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  A  wife,  here,  is,  indeed,  a 
helpmeet." 

Bravery,  endurance,  and  hardihood  were  in  those 
days  a  part  of  the  education  of  each  Indian  boy,  and 
here  is  a  glimpse  of  the  training  received  by  a  baby, 
which  should  fit  him  for  the  hardships  that  each  war- 
rior must  endure.  This  was  the  grandson  of  the  Vip- 
po-nah,  a  boy  six  or  seven  months  old: 

"Every  morning,  his  mother  washed  him  in  cold 
water,  and  sent  him  out  to  the  air  to  make  him  hardy; 
he  would  come  in,  perfectly  nude,  from  his  airing,  about 
half  frozen.  How  he  would  laugh  and  brighten  up,  as 
he  felt  the  warmth  of  the  fire!  Being  a  boy,  the  par- 
ents have  great  hopes  of  him  as  a  brave  and  chief  (the 
acme  of  Indian  greatness);  his  father  dotes  upon 
him,  holding  him  in  his  arms,  singing  in  a  low  tone, 
and  in  various  ways,  showing  his  extreme  affection.'* 

One  of  the  subjects  discussed  by  Garrard  and  John 
Smith  before  they  reached  the  Cheyenne  village  was 
prairie  foods.  Smith  spoke  of  the  excellence  of  dog 
meat,  while  Garrard  declared  that  it  must  be  horrible, 
saying  that  buffalo  meat  was  unquestionably  the  most 
delicate  food  in  this  or  any  other  country.  Smith 
agreed  that  buffalo  was  the  best,  but  that  dog  meat 
was  the  next,  and  offered  to  bet  that  he  would  make 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  253 

Garrard  eat  dog  meat  in  the  village  and  make  him 
declare  that  it  was  good.  How  John  Smith  carried 
out  his  threat  is  told  in  the  following  paragraphs: 

**One  evening  we  were  in  our  places — I  was  lying 
on  a  pile  of  outspread  robes,  watching  the  blaze,  as  it 
illumined  the  lodge,  which  gave  the  yellow  hue  of  the 
skins  of  which  it  was  made,  a  still  brighter  tinge;  and, 
following  with  my  eye,  the  thin  blue  smoke,  coursing,  in 
fantastic  shapes,  through  the  opening  at  the  top  of  the 
cone;  my  thoughts  carrying  me  momentarily  every- 
where; now  home;  now  enjoying  some  choice  edible, 
or,  seated  by  a  pleasant  friend,  conversing;  in  short,  my 
mind,  like  the  harp  in  Alexander's  feast,  the  chords  of 
which,  touched  by  the  magic  hand  of  memory,  or  flight 
of  fancy,  alternately  depressed,  or  elevated  me  in  feeling. 
Greenwood  and  Smith,  sitting  up,  held  in  'durance 
vile'  the  ever  present  pipe.  Their  unusual  laughter 
attracted  my  attention,  but,  not  divining  the  cause  I 
joined  in  the  conversation.  It  was  now  quite  late,  and 
feeling  hungry,  I  asked  what  was  on  the  fire. 

'"Terrapins! '  promptly  replied  Smith. 

"'Terrapins?'  echoed  I,  in  surprise,  at  the  name. 
'Terrapins!     How  do  you  cook  them?' 

'"You  know  them  hard-shell  land  terrapin?' 

"'Yes.' 

*"^Well!  the  squaws  go  out  to  the  sand  buttes  and 
bring  the  critters  in  and  cook  'em  in  the  shell  alive 
— those  stewin'  thar  ar  cleaned  first.  Howsomever, 
they're  darned  good!' 


254  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

*"Yes,  hos,  an'  that's  a  fact,  wagh!'  chimed  in  Green- 
wood. 

"I  hstened,  of  course,  with  much  interest  to  their 
account  of  the  savage  dish,  and  waited,  with  impa- 
tience for  a  taste  of  that,  the  recital  of  whose  mer- 
its sharpened  my  already  keen  appetite.  When  the 
squaw  transferred  the  contents  of  the  kettle  to  a  wooden 
bowl,  and  passed  it  on  to  us,  our  butcher  knives  were 
in  immediate  requisition.  Taking  a  piece,  with  hun- 
gry avidity,  which  Smith  handed  me,  without  thought, 
as  to  what  part  of  the  terrapin  it  was,  I  ate  it  with 
much  gusto,  calling  for  more.'  It  was  extremely  good, 
and  I  spoke  of  the  dehcacy  of  the  meat,  and  answered 
all  their  questions  as  to  its  excellency  in  the  affirma- 
tive, even  to  the  extent  of  a  panegyric  on  the  whole 
turtle  species.  After  fully  committing  myself.  Smith 
looked  at  me  a  while  in  silence,  the  corners  of  his  mouth 
gradually  making  preparations  for  a  laugh,  and  asked: 

*'  'Well,  hos!  how  do  you  like  dogmeat?'  and  then 
such  hearty  guffaws  were  never  heard.  The  stupefac- 
tion into  which  I  was  thrown  by  the  revolting  an- 
nouncement, only  increased  their  merriment,  which  soon 
was  resolved  into  yells  of  delight  at  my  discomfiture. 

"A  revulsion  of  opinion,  and  dogmeat  too,  ensued, 
for  I  could  feel  the  *pup'  crawling  up  my  throat;  but 
saying  to  myself — *that  it  was  good  under  the  name  of 
terrapin,'  'that  a  rose  under  any  other  name  would 
smell  as  sweet,'  and  that  it  would  be  prejudice  to  stop, 
I  broke  the  shackles  of  deep-rooted  antipathy  to  the 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  255 

canine  breed,  and,  putting  a  choice  morceau  on  top  of 
that  already  swallowed,  ever  after  remained  a  stanch 
defender  and  admirer  of  dogmeat.  The  conversa- 
tion held  with  Smith,  the  second  day  of  our  acquaint- 
ancC;  was  brought  to  mind,  and  I  acknowledged  that 
dog'  was  next  in  order  to  buffalo." 

Life  in  the  Cheyenne  camp  went  on  interestingly. 
Garrard  began  to  make  a  vocabulary  of  the  Cheyenne 
language,  and  soon  to  speak  it  in  a  broken  fashion 
which  caused  his  auditors  to  shriek  with  laughter. 
He  watched  them  at  the  sign  language,  amused  them 
with  games  and  the  few  books  which  he  possessed, 
went  to  feasts,  noted  the  odd  implements  and  ways  of 
his  camp  mates,  and  set  down  all  that  happened,  to- 
gether with  his  boyish  reflections  on  the  incidents. 

The  discipline  practised  by  John  Smith  on  his  son 
Jack  will  bear  repeating.  It  seems  that  the  child  had 
taken  to  crying  one  night,  much  to  the  annoyance  of 
four  or  five  chiefs  who  had  come  to  the  lodge  to  talk 
and  smoke.  "In  vain  did  the  mother  shake  and  scold 
him  with  the  severest  Cheyenne  words,  until  Smith, 
provoked  beyond  endurance,  took  the  squalling  young- 
ster in  hands;  he  *shu-ed'  and  shouted,  and  swore,  but 
Jack  had  gone  too  far  to  be  easily  pacified.  He  then 
sent  for  a  bucket  of  water  from  the  river,  and  poured 
cupfull  after  cupfull  on  Jack,  who  stamped  and  screamed, 
and  bit,  in  his  puny  rage.  Notwithstanding,  the  icy 
stream  slowly  descended  until  the  bucket  was  emp- 
tied, another  was  sent  for,  and  again  and  again  the 


256  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

cup  was  replenished  and  emptied  on  the  blubbering 
youth.  At  last,  exhausted  with  exertion,  and  com- 
pletely cooled  down,  he  received  the  remaining  water 
in  silence,  and,  with  a  few  words  of  admonition,  was  de- 
livered over  to  his  mother,  in  whose  arms  he  stifled 
his  sobs,  until  his  heart-breaking  grief  and  cares  were 
drowned  in  sleep.  What  a  deviHsh  mixture  Indian  and 
American  blood  is!" 

Garrard  was  a  healthy,  natural  boy,  and  with  all  a 
boy's  love  of  fun.  He  mingled  readily  and  naturally 
in  the  sports  and  amusements  of  the  young  people  of 
the  Cheyenne  camp  and  heartily  enjoyed  it.  In  those 
days  the  white  trader  in  the  Indian  camp  was  regarded 
as  a  great  man,  and  was  treated  with  respect,  to  re- 
tain which  he  carried  himself  with  much  dignity. 
But  Garrard  cared  nothing  for  this  respect,  and  made 
no  effort  to  preserve  this  dignity.  He  danced  and 
sang  with  the  boys  and  girls,  and  the  women  were 
astonished  to  find  a  white  person  so  careless  of  ap- 
pearances, though  they  liked  him  all  the  better  for  it. 

On  one  occasion  in  the  winter  there  was  much  ex- 
citement in  the  Cheyenne  camp.  A  war-party  was 
returning,  and  all  the  men,  women,  and  children  black- 
ened their  faces  and  went  out  to  meet  them.  The 
returning  warriors  advanced  in  triumph,  for  they  had 
three  scalps,  borne  on  slender  willow  wands,  and  hang- 
ing from  each  scalp  was  a  single  tuft  of  hair  which 
told  that  they  were  Pawnees.  Now  there  was  great 
rejoicing  in  the  camp,  and  many  dances  to  celebrate 


A  Boy  In  Indian  Camps  257 

the  victory  and  to  rejoice  over  the  triumph  that  the 
tribe  had  made  over  its  enemies.  "The  drum,  at  night, 
sent  forth  its  monotony  of  hollow  sound,  and  our 
Mexican,  Pedro,  and  I,  directed  by  the  booming,  en- 
tered a  lodge,  vacated  for  the  purpose,  full  of  young 
men  and  squaws,  following  one  another  in  a  contin- 
uous circle,  keeping  the  left  knee  stiff,  and  bending 
the  right  with  a  half-forward,  half-negative  step,  as  if 
they  wanted  to  go  on  and  could  not,  accompanying  it, 
every  time  the  right  foot  was  raised,  with  an  energetic, 
broken  song,  which,  dying  away,  was  again  and  again 
sounded  —  hay-a-ha)^,  hay-a-hay,  they  went — laying 
the  emphasis  on  the  first  syllable.  A  drum,  similar  to, 
though  larger  than,  a  tamborine,  covered  with  par- 
fleche,  was  beat  upon  with  a  stick,  producing  with  the 
voices  a  sound  not  altogether  disagreeable.  .  .  . 

"During  the  day,  the  young  men,  except  the  dancers, 
piled  up  dry  logs  in  a  level,  open  space  near,  for  a  grand 
demonstration.  At  night,  when  it  was  fired,  I  folded 
my  blanket  over  my  shoulders,  comme  les  sauvages,  and 
went  out.  The  faces  of  many  girls  were  brilliant  with 
vermiUion;  others  were  blacked,  their  robes,  leggins 
and  skin  dresses,  glittering  with  beads  and  porcupine 
quill  work.  Rings  and  bracelets  of  shining  brass  en- 
circled their  taper  arms  and  fingers,  and  shells  dangled 
from  their  ears.  Indeed,  all  the  finery  collectable  was 
piled  on  in  barbarous  profusion,  though  a  few.  In  good 
taste  or  through  poverty,  wore  a  single  band,  and  but 
few  rings;  and  with  jetty  hair,  parted  in  the  middle, 


258  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

from  the  forehead  to  the  neck,  terminating  in  two 
handsome  braids.  .  .  . 

"The  girls,  numbering  two  hundred,  fell  into  hne 
together,  and  the  men,  of  whom  there  were  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty,  joining,  a  circle  was  formed,  which 
'traveled'  around  with  the  same  shuffling  step  al- 
ready described.  The  drummers,  and  other  musicians 
(twenty  or  twenty-five  of  them)  marched  in  a  contrary 
direction,  to,  and  from,  and  around  the  fire,  inside 
the  large  ring;  for,  at  the  distance  kept  by  the  out- 
siders, the  area  was  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in 
diameter.  There  Appolonian  emulators  chanted  the 
great  deeds  performed  by  the  Cheyenne  warriors;  as 
they  ended,  the  dying  strain  was  caught  up  by  the  hun- 
dreds of  the  outside  circle,  who,  in  fast-swelHng,  loud 
tones,  poured  out  the  burden  of  their  song.  At  this 
juncture,  the  march  was  quickened,  the  scalps  of  the 
slain  were  borne  aloft  and  shaken  in  wild  deHght,  and 
shrill  warnotes,  rising  above  the  furious  din,  accel- 
erated the  pulsation,  and  strung  high  the  nerves.  Time- 
worn  shields,  careering  in  mad  holders'  hands,  clashed, 
and  keen  lances,  once  reeking  in  Pawnee  blood,  clanged. 
Braves  seized  one  another  with  an  iron  grip,  in  the 
heat  of  excitement,  or  chimed  more  tenderly  in  the 
chant,  enveloped  in  the  same  robe  with  some  gentle 
maiden  as  they  approvingly  stepped  through  one  of 
their  own  original  polkas. 

** Thirty  of  the  chiefs,  and  principal  men  were  ranged 
by  the  pile  of  blazing  logs.     By  their  invitation,  I  sat 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  259 


down  near  *01d  Bark,'  and  smoked  death  and  its  con- 
comitant train  of  evils  to  those  audacious  tribes,  who 
doubt  the  courage  or  supremacy,  of  the  brave,  the 
great,  and  powerful  Cheyenne  nation. 

"The  pipe  was  lavishly  decorated  with  beaver  strips, 
beads,  and  porcupine;  the  mixture  of  tobacco  and 
bark,  was  prepared  with  unusual  care  for  this,  their 
grand  gala  night." 

It  would  be  interesting  to  follow  Garrard  through 
his  life  in  the  Cheyenne  camp,  but  space  forbids  this. 
He  was  called  away  from  this  interesting  life  by  the 
news  which  came  from  the  West  of  the  death  at  the 
hands  of  the  Pueblos  of  Governor  Charles  Bent,  in 
New  Mexico.  Fugitives  who  had  escaped  the  attack 
had  come  to  Fort  WiHiam  and  told  what  had  hap- 
pened, and  soon  after,  William  Bent,  with  twenty-three 
men,  started  for  the  Mexican  settlements.  They  passed 
far  to  the  southward  of  Pike's  Peak,  met  a  few  United 
States  soldiers  and  volunteers,  and  toward  the  middle 
of  February  were  joined  by  Sublette,  with  two  com- 
panions, who  reported  forty  thousand  men  enHsted 
for  Mexico.  Toiling  through  the  mountains  in  true 
winter  weather,  the  party  marched  on  until  they  came 
to  one  of  Bent's  ranches  and  at  last  reached  Taos. 
From  this  on,  the  author's  route  was  much  among  the 
Mexicans  of  the  various  towns  until,  at  last,  turning  his 
face  eastward,  he  came  back  across  the  mountains, 
and  once  more  found  himself  in  the  Cheyenne  village, 
whence  soon  afterward  he  set  out  for  the  East. 


26o  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

II 

AN  ATTACK  BY  COMANCHES 

Although  Garrard  had  seen  plenty  of  Indians,  and 
had  been  present  at  more  than  one  skirmish,  he  had 
not  yet  taken  part  in  a  real  Indian  fight,  though  he 
had  long  wished  to  do  so.  On  the  way  back  this  de- 
sire was  gratified,  and  the  boy,  with  his  eighteenth 
birthday  only  just  behind  him,  paints  in  one  of  the 
last  chapters  of  his  book  a  spirited  picture  of  the 
alarms,  surprises,  narrow  escapes,  and  swift  changes 
of  an  Indian  raid  on  the  moving  wagon-trains  near  the 
Pawnee  Fork  of  the  Arkansas.  His  trip  on  the  plains 
ended  in  an  exciting  fighting  climax,  and  we  can  fancy 
that  it  gave  the  boy  material  for  talk  and  for  dehghtful 
recollections  during  the  rest  of  his  life. 

"We  were  started  early.  The  wagons  traveled  in 
double  file,  so  that  in  case  of  an  attack  from  the  leagued 
Camanches  and  Arapahoes,  whose  propinquity  was  as 
well-known  as  dreaded,  they  would  not  be  strung  along 
too  great  a  space.  The  caballada  was  driven  and  kept 
between  these  two  lines  of  the  train. 

"Late  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  sun  was  fast  sinking 
to  its  golden-hued,  silver-flecked  bed,  and  the  drooping 
ears  of  the  flagging  mules  betokened  weariness,  objects 
were  seen  directly  before  us  in  the  trace.  Keen-eyed 
Barton,  in  calling  our  attention  to  them,  uttered  his 
opinion  in  the  single  significant  word,  'Injuns!* 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  261 

*'  'Indians,  say  you,  Barton?'  inquired  the  colonel, 
looking  in  the  direction  pointed,  'Indians?  Upon  my 
word  I  believe  so.  Come  on,  we'll  reconnoiter,  and 
say  nothing  to  the  train  until  the  fact  is  ascertained — 
indeed,  I  hope  not' — and,  striking  spurs  into  his  large 
brown  California  mule,  he  loped  forward,  followed  by 
some  eight  or  ten  of  us.  We  soon  ascertained,  beyond 
a  doubt,  enough  danger  to  lessen  our  party  to  five — 
the  colonel.  Barton,  Brown,  McCarty,  and  myself, 
who  kept  on  until  within  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
of  the  large  party  of  mounted  warriors.  That  por- 
tion of  our  men  who  had  put  back  with  all  possible 
speed,  set  the  train  in  a  ferment  by  their  prodigious 
narrations. 

"In  front,  on  the  opposite  rise  of  ground,  was  a  sight 
to  make  the  stoutest  heart  among  us  quail;  for  the 
Indian  force,  displayed  within  long  rifleshot,  num- 
bered, according  to  our  unanimous  estimate,  four  hun- 
dred strong,  glittering  with  gay  pennons,  bright  lance- 
heads,  and  savage  ornaments.  Young  braves  rode 
their  plunging  barbs  restlessly  to  and  fro.  The  shrill 
and  startling  notes  of  preparation  reached  us  but  too 
plainly;  and  we  hurried  back  to  await  for  the  expected 
charge.  The  train  was  in  almost  inextricable  confu- 
sion, but  the  colonel  soon  restored  order.  The  wag- 
ons, mules,  and  men  advanced  to  the  brow  of  the  hill 
and  made  a  coral:  that  is,  the  two  front  wagons  came 
together,  and  the  inside  forewheels  of  those  following, 
were  made  to  touch  the  outside  hindwheel  of  the  one 


262  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

immediately  in  front.  In  this  manner,  a  secure  but 
irregular  oval  pen  was  formed,  into  which  were  driven 
the  oxen,  the  caballada,  and  the  riding  animals,  thus 
leaving  the  men  free  to  devote  their  whole  attention 
to  the  enemy.  There  was  little  noise,  but  much  alac- 
rity, and  considerable  trepidation  among  the  poor 
teamsters,  thirty  of  whom  were  without  firearms. 
We  had  scarcely  finished  our  preparations  for  de- 
fense, when  the  Indians,  with  poised  lances,  furiously 
charged  upon  us.  For  some  time  they  circled  around 
our  coral  with  guns  unslung,  and  white  shields  con- 
tinually shifted  to  protect  their  bodies.  At  last  they 
drew  rein;  and,  on  each  side  of  our  party,  commenced 
a  lively  demonstration,  sending  their  balls  singing 
through  the  air;  some  overhead,  some  perforating  the 
wagons  and  wagon-sheets,  and  some  knocking  the  fur 
from  our  hide-bound  oxen. 

*'We  were  drawn  up  in  line  outside,  fronting  the 
main  body,  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  distant.  We 
gave  them  several  rounds,  one-half  of  us  reserving 
fire  until  the  discharged  arms  were  reloaded.  The 
Indians  scattered  after  our  rather  ineffectual  volleys, 
and  their  position  became  more  menacing,  their  war- 
whoops  more  dissonant  and  savage  than  before.  We 
posted  ourselves  about  the  wagons,  each  man  to  his 
liking.  Lieutenant  Brown,  with  five  men,  took  a  posi- 
tion on  a  knoll  fifty  yards  from  us,  and  kept  up  an  in- 
cessant firing,  which  was  warmly  reciprocated  by  the 
foe.     It  became  exciting;  the  warriors  galloping  furi- 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  263 

ously,  bent  down,  now  on  this  side,  now  on  that,  until 
nothing  of  their  person  could  be  seen  but  the  heel  and 
part  of  the  leg  thrown  across  the  cantle  of  the  saddle. 
From  under  the  horse's  neck  would  issue  a  smoke- 
cloud,  as  we  heard  the  sighing  of  the  ball  as  it  cut  its 
way  overhead,  or  knocked  the  dust  from  the  dry  plain. 
Sharply-sighted  rifles  gave  ready  answer;  cheers  rang 
out  from  our  exhilarated  party,  and  unfortunate  oxen, 
stung  by  furrowing  bullets  from  lumbering  escopetas, 
plunged  and  horned  each  other  from  side  to  side  of  the 
crowded  coral. 

"A  Cahfornia  Indian,  belonging  to  Colonel  Russell, 
ran,  with  gun  in  hand,  far  out  toward  the  foiled  enemy, 
making  the  Indian  sign  of  insult  and  derision;  and,  in 
Spanish,  abusing  them  most  scandalously.  He  came 
back  before  long,  in  no  small  hurry,  with  three  of  the 
outraged  foe  at  his  heels,  who  were  in  return  repelled 
at  fullest  speed  by  us.  A  ball  overhead,  causes  even 
the  coolest  man  to  dodge  involuntarily,  however  surely 
he  may  know  that  the  whistling  bullet  has  already 
missed  him.  This  is  especially  the  case  in  a  desultory 
scattered  fire.  Many  a  hearty  laugh  was  had  at  the 
ludicrous  positions  into  which  we  found  ourselves 
thrown  by  these  badly-aimed  missiles. 

"The  Indians  detained  us  an  hour,  and  then,  re- 
linquishing their  coup  attempts,  moved  off  toward  the 
west,  to  our  extreme  gratification.  Had  the  charge 
been  made  before  the  coral  was  formed,  they  would 
have  scalped  the  whole  party,  for  our  force  was  small, 


264  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

and  composed  for  the  most  part  of  green  teamsters. 
Yoking  up,  we  reached  camp,  by  the  river's  side,  hot, 
thirsty,  and  irritated  at  our  meager  'satisfaction.' 

"June  19th.  The  train  proceeded  with  much  caution. 
Indian  spies  watched  us  in  the  distance,  hanging  Hke 
wolves  on  our  rear;  the  gleam  of  their  lances  was  often 
seen  among  the  sandbuttes  beyond  the  river.  They 
were  evidently  intending  to  make  another  descent,  on 
the  first  fair  opportunity.  Our  flankguards  were  on 
the  alert,  and  the  day  ended  without  a  conflict.  The 
country  was  sparsely  wooded  with  cottonwood  and 
boxelder,  and  bois  de  vaches  supersedes  substantial  fuel 
for  several  days  travel  through  the  region  of  the  *  Coon 
Creeks.' 

"Our  animals  were  saddled,  hitched,  and  the  train 
in  motion,  after  an  early  cup  of  coffee.  The  air  brisk 
and  cool,  and  the  sky  clear,  gave  promise  of  a  fair  day's 
travel;  and  even  uneasy  fears  of  Camanche  attack 
were  not  sufficient  to  check  our  joyous  feelings.  It  was 
the  duty  of  the  horsemen  to  push  forward  at  mealtime, 
select  a  camp,  and  wait  for  the  arrival  of  the  train. 
Near  noon,  we  entered  a  large  'bottom,'  horseshoe- 
shaped,  around  which  the  river  made  a  circuit  of  three 
miles  or  more.  The  wagons  kept  the  trace  across  the 
neck,  and  a  party,  composed  of  Colonel  Russell,  Mr. 
Coolidge,  and  myself,  on  mules,  and  three  others,  on 
horses,  followed  the  course  of  the  stream  to  gather  fuel. 
This  I  laid  across  the  pommel  of  the  colonel's  saddle, 
as  I  collected  it,  and  he  was  already  loaded  with  suffi- 


A  Boy  In  Indian  Camps  265 

cient  to  boil  our  cup  of  coffee  and  fry  the  slice  of  pork 
for  which  we  were  well  prepared  by  several  hours' 
fasting,  when,  all  at  once,  the  three  horsemen  strung 
out  in  a  straight  shoot  for  the  wagons,  without  a  word 
to  us.  'Hallo!'  shouted  we,  'what's  your  hurry?' 
The  fast  receding  men  said  nothing,  but  pointed  to 
the  southwest,  in  which  direction  there  approached,  at 
full  speed,  a  war-party  of  about  forty,  endeavoring  to 
cut  us  off  from  the  wagons  which  were  then  coralling 
in  great  confusion.  Dusky  figures,  and  light  puffs  of 
smoke,  showed  faintly  In  the  distance,  the  attack  on 
the  straggling  train.  No  time  was  to  be  lost  In  rejoin- 
ing our  company,  and  back  we  spurred,  to  the  tune  of 
Camanche  take  the  hindmost.  The  lines  of  the  In- 
dian attack  and  our  return  were  convergent,  and  it 
was  a  mere  question  of  speed  whether  we  lost  our  top- 
knots or  gained  the  coral.  The  pursuers  already  had 
the  advantage.  The  colonel  threw  down  his  wood,  and 
I  replaced  the  old  cap  on  my  rifle  with  a  fresh  one,  de- 
termined that  one  should  'go  under'  before  my  'hair 
was  lifted.'  I  led  the  retreat,  mounted  on  a  small  Iron- 
gray  mule — a  native  of  the  California  savannas — who 
bounded  most  gallantly — for  a  mule — over  the  prairie. 
Colonel  Russell  followed  in  my  wake,  but  Coolldge 
was  still  behind.  Our  pace  seemed  snail-Hke,  and  we 
jammed  our  rifle  butts  into  the  flanks  of  the  poor 
beasts  most  unmercifully. 

"  'Come  on,  Coolldge,'  shouted  the  Colonel  to  the 
frightened  trader,  'come  on,  we'll  soon  be  safe.' 


266  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

"'Yes,  yes!  but  this  fool  animal  isn't  worth  a  cuss 
for  running,'  and  with  that,  he  gave  the  poor  mule  an- 
other 'chug'  with  his  sharp  riflestock.  No  exertion 
was  spared,  no  incentive  was  neglected,  to  urge  our 
dull  beasts  along;  and  though  there  was  but  small 
chance  for  escaping  a  lance  thrust,  we  answered  loudly 
their  yells.  When  within  three  hundred  yards  of  the 
wagon,  I  looked  back,  and  saw  Coolidge  far  behind, 
with  several  Indians  close  upon  him,  the  foremost 
brandishing  his  lance.  I  shouted  to  the  colonel  that 
Coolidge  was  gone,  and  immediately  we  jerked  our 
animals  around.  The  colonel  aimed  hastily,  fired,  and 
galloped  back  to  the  coral.  I  spurred  on  to  cover 
Coolidge's  retreat,  who  came  lumbering  with  the  ozvgh- 
owgh-he-a  of  his  pursuers  close  to  his  ear.  When  I 
drew  rein,  and  placed  it  between  my  teeth,  my  mule, 
contrary  to  all  precedent  and  custom,  stood  stock  still, 
while  I  took  steady  aim,  at  the  nearest  savage,  who, 
flying  along  with  eager  look  and  harsh  yell,  was  stri- 
ving to  make  a  sure  blow.  His  band  followed  on  his 
track,  at  distances  various  as  their  horses'  speed. 
Coolidge,  with  eyes  staring  with  fright,  bent  close  down 
to  his  mule's  neck.  When  I  first  drew  bead  on  the 
Camanche's  painted  hide,  he  was  approaching  in  a 
quartering  direction  to  my  right;  as  the  gentleman  was 
rather  fleshy  about  the  umbiHcal  region,  and  tender 
withal,  to  make  a  sure  shot,  I  kept  the  silver  bead  at 
my  rifle  point,  at  that  particular  spot,  until  he  had 
passed  to  the  left.     With  the  report  the  yellow  devil's 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  267 

legs  twitched  in  pain  (I  was  so  close  to  him  that  I  could 
see  even  his  features  with  disagreeable  distinctness), 
and  throwing  up  his  horse's  head,  he  galloped  off  to  the 
river.  Those  who  watched,  say  that  he  did  not  come 
back, 

"Reloading  at  full  speed,  Coolidge  and  I  hurried  Into 
the  coral,  which  was  just  being  closed.  We  dis- 
mounted, merely  giving  each  other  a  look  of  congratu- 
lation; for  the  rattling  of  the  guns,  and  the  warwhoops 
and  yells  of  the  men,  drowned  our  voices,  and  left  us 
nothing  to  do  but  fight.  For  that  work,  with  a  good 
will,  and  quite  systematically,  we  prepared  ourselves. 
The  Colonel's  party  were  firing  with  much  earnestness. 
A  short  distance  of  the  place  where  we  were  gathering 
wood,  a  large  force  was  descending  the  sand  buttes,  glit- 
tering with  bright  gun-barrels,  swords,  and  lances — a 
well-armed  band.  They  crossed  the  river  in  a  trot,  which 
was  quickened  into  a  charge  as  they  reached  the  bank, 
and,  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  distance,  they 
opened  their  fire.  For  a  few  minutes,  rifles,  warwhoops, 
escopetas,  hurrahs,  contended  in  discordant  strife — a 
tumult  of  wild  sounds.  But  they  could  not  stand  our 
well-directed  fire,  and  fell  back.  They  left  no  dead 
on  the  field.  This  is  never  done,  and  the  only  token  of 
the  effect  of  our  balls  was,  by  the  wounded  precipi- 
tately leaving  the  immediate  scene  of  action.  To  give 
straightout  evidence  of  injury,  by  show  of  pain,  or 
otherwise,  is  a  breach  of  their  code  of  honor — an  in- 
fringement severely  rebuked  by  the  taunts  of  the  tribe 


268  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

— a  weakness  not  soon  forgotten  or  forgiven  by  the  old 
chiefs,  whose  duty  and  care  it  is,  to  sustain,  by  precept 
and  example,  the  national  bravery  and  hardihood. 
They  consider  not  the  death,  merely,  of  an  enemy,  a 
victory — a  coup  must  be  counted.  On  a  horse-steaHng 
expedition,  this  is  a  horse;  in  battle,  a  scalp;  and  the 
trophies  must  be  shown  at  home,  before  the  warrior  is 
allowed  to  decorate  his  robe  with  the  black  hand.  When 
an  Indian  falls  too  far  gone  to  rescue  himself,  his  friends 
rush  up  and  bear  him  off  between  their  fleet  steeds. 

"They  rallied  and  again  circled  around  us,  with  their 
white  shields  protecting  their  bodies,  tossing  their 
spears,  and  showing  off  their  beautiful  horses,  and  their 
own  graceful  persons,  to  the  best  advantage.  Their 
intention  was  to  make  a  charge  on  the  first  vulnerable 
point,  but  we,  being  too  well  guarded,  they,  after  many 
feints,  fell  back.  I  sat  flat  on  the  ground,  my  rifle 
resting  on  the  spoke  of  a  wagon-wheel — firing  as  often 
as  an  Indian  came  within  range — and,  when  the 
painted,  warwhooping  target  vamosed  for  safer  quar- 
ters, at  the  crack  of  the  gun,  certainly  no  other  than  a 
smile  of  satisfaction  lit  up  my  face.  If  none  fell  out- 
right, it  was  not  that  any  qualms  of  conscience  pre- 
vented my  taking  cool  and  sure  aim,  at  those  who,  after 
chasing  a  mile,  and  nearly  scaring  the  life  out  of  us, 
were  then  keeping  us  penned  in  the  hot  sun  without 
water. 

"One  Indian,  who,  from  his  distinguished,  though 
scanty,  dress,  was  a  'brave'  of  the  first  order,  came 


A  Boy  In  Indian  Camps  269 

close  Into  our  lines,  throwing  himself  behind  the  body 
of  his  horse,  so  as  to  show  nothing  but  a  hand  and  foot; 
but,  as  he  raised  himself,  one  of  the  colonel's  men  cut, 
with  his  rifleball,  a  neatly-dressed  skin,  that  hung  at 
his  neck,  which  we  picked  up  after  the  fight,  as  our  only 
trophy.  They  now  tossed  their  balls  Into  us  from  a  long 
distance,  by  elevating  their  pieces,  being  convinced  that 
our  coral  could  not  be  broken  without  great  loss  of  life. 
Two  teamsters,  about  this  time  getting  scared  at  the 
whistling  missiles,  crept,  for  security.  Into  an  empty 
wagon.  They  had  scarcely  made  themselves  comfort- 
able, when  a  ball,  crashing  through  both  sides  of  their 
defense,  burled  itself  in  the  side  of  a  poor  steer.  The 
terrified  Neds  tumbled  out,  greeted  by  the  roars  of  the 
men  around. 

"  'That's  what  you  get  for  your  cussed  cowardice,' 
drawled  out  one  of  the  fellows. 

"*Well,  I'll  be  darned,  if  that  wasn't  a  grazer,'  ejac- 
ulated Charley  McCarty.  'Feel  if  you  haven't  got  a 
hole  in  your  dogskin — I'd  hate  to  be  as  bad  scared  as 
you,  by  thunder!' 

"We  were  detained  upward  of  two  hours.  Our  fa- 
tigued and  heated  oxen  were  nearly  dropping  with 
thirst.  The  savages  filed  slowly  up  the  sand  buttes  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river,  and  we  proceeded  to  camp, 
each  man  talking  of  his  own  shots. 

"June  22.  We  expected  to  reach  the  Pawnee  Fork 
during  the  morning's  march,  and  as  there  were  bluffs 
near  the  camp,  and  several  streams  intervening,  thick- 


270  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

set  with  timber,  favorable  for  ambuscade,  the  advance 
guard  preceded  the  train  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  We 
were  on  the  alert,  our  eyes  searching  every  object,  our 
guns  ready  to  fire,  as  with  bridle-rein  firmly  grasped, 
we  galloped  along  in  the  bright  summer  morning.  Our 
exposed  position,  and  the  continual  expectation  of  the 
Camanche  yell,  kept  us  excited  wildly  enough,  although 
no  foe  delayed  our  march.  By  noontide,  the  saddles 
were  off" — the  wagons  coralled,  and  the  tent  pitched 
once  more.  Among  the  remains  of  the  old  camps,  I 
found  the  skull  and  skeleton  of  an  Indian.  The  sin- 
ews, well  gnawed  by  the  wolves,  were  not  yet  dry,  and 
the  skin  and  hair  still  graced  the  head,  which,  passed 
from  hand  to  hand  by  the  curious,  was,  at  last,  tossed 
into  the  turbulent  waters  of  the  flooded  Pawnee  Fork. 
The  Camanche,  whose  head  this  was,  had  been  killed 
a  few  days  previous,  in  an  encounter  with  traders. 
One  or  two  others  'went  under'  at  the  same  time,  but 
their  bodies  had  been  rescued. 

"On  the  opposite  side  of  the  creek,  a  train  from  the 
States  was  stopped  like  ourselves  by  the  risen  waters. 
I  accompanied  some  of  our  men  over  to  It.  We  swam 
across,  holding  our  shirts  and  buckskins  In  one  hand. 
At  the  camp  we  found  a  government  train,  some  tra- 
ders' wagons,  any  quantity  of  gaping  men,  and  a  white- 
woman — a  real  whitewoman!  and  we  gazed  upon  her 
with  great  satisfaction  and  curiosity.  After  gleaning 
the  'news,'  we  returned  in  a  full  run  to  the  creek,  and, 
crossing  as  before,  retailed  our  scanty  Information. 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  271 

"The  next  da}^  was  beautiful,  and  we  waited  im- 
patiently for  the  slow-receding  stream  to  become  ford- 
able.  The  men  scattered  on  both  banks,  the  gra- 
zing cattle  and  caballadas,  with  the  white  wagon-tops 
of  the  three  camps,  made  a  serene  and  lovely  scene. 
About  ten  o'clock,  an  immense  drove  of  buffalo  was 
seen  running  in  the  prairie  to  the  southwest.  Some 
of  our  party  set  off  in  pursuit  on  their  horses,  while 
twenty  or  thirty  of  us  ran  down  to  intercept  them  as 
they  crossed  the  creek.  A  faint  cry  of  Indians!  Indi- 
ans! Indians!  from  the  camp  reached  those  nearest  the 
muleguard,  and  by  them  it  was  repeated  and  wafted 
on  to  us,  who,  hardly  knowing  whether  to  cache  in  the 
undergrowth,  or  to  run  for  camp,  stood  for  a  moment 
undecided,  and  then  'streaked  it'  for  the  wagons. 
Turning  our  eyes  to  the  furthest  train  on  the  hill,  we 
perceived  it  in  great  commotion.  Fifty  Indians  were 
charging  among  them  with  their  lances,  recoiling  from 
the  light  volumes  of  smoke  at  times,  and  again  swal- 
lowing up  the  little  force  with  their  numbers  and  shut- 
ting them  in  from  our  sight.  Others  were  stampeding 
the  oxen.  After  a  conflict  of  several  minutes,  they  re- 
treated, bearing  with  them  a  dead  warrior,  behind  the 
bluff  hill  which  jutted  boldly  from  the  opposite  shore. 

"Our  teamsters,  during  the  fight,  looked  on  with 
mouth  and  eyes  open,  in  wonderment,  regardless  of 
their  own  cattle,  still  feeding  in  a  deeply-fringed  sa- 
vanna. Tall  Cottonwood  timber,  overgrown  with  the 
luxuriant  vine  and  thick-set  underbrush,  impervious  to 


272  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

the  eye,  confined  our  stock  to  this  secluded  spot.  The 
creek,  half  encircling  it  with  a  grand  sweep,  added  Its 
protection.  A  lightguard  of  three  men  watched  the 
grazing  herd.  We  were  still  congratulating  ourselves  on 
our  escape,  when  from  the  guard,  we  heard  the  cry  that 
the  Indians  were  swimming  the  creek  and  driving  off 
the  oxen.  More  than  half  the  camp  started  in  full 
run  to  protect  them.  As  we  rounded  the  angle  of  the 
stream,  yells  were  heard,  then  the  dusky  forms  of  a 
few  Indians  were  seen;  and,  by  the  time  we  were  within 
long  gunshot,  some  sixty  were  among  the  luckless  herd, 
goading  them  into  a  lumbering  gallop.  The  colonel's 
party  led  the  van,  and  would  have  saved  the  cattle, 
had  the  teamsters  supported  them.     But,  they  hanging 

back,  we  told  them  that  their  oxen  might  go  to . 

Hurrying  back  to  camp.  Colonel  Russell  mounted  his 
force  and  went  in  pursuit;  but,  in  vain,  we  tried  to  re- 
pair the  loss  that  negligence  and  cowardice  had  effected. 
Our  ride  rescued  only  thirty  oxen,  and  gave  us  a  view 
of  the  retreating  savages,  thrusting  their  lances  into 
the  remainder.  In  that  unfortunate  half  hour,  the 
train  lost  one  hundred  and  sixty  steers;  which,  at  the 
purchase  price — one  half  less  than  they  were  worth  on 
the  prairie — was  a  damage  of  four  thousand  dollars, 
together  with  a  total  loss  of  from  five  to  seven  thousand 
more,  in  the  necessary  abandonment  of  the  wagons — 
the  natural  result  of  sending  on  the  plains  a  set  of  green 
men,  commanded  by  as  raw  a  director,  poorly  and 
scantily  armed  with   government  blunderbusses,   and 


A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps  273 

meagerly  furnished  with  from  eight  to  fifteen  rounds 
of  cartridges  each,  which  were  often  wasted  on  game  or 
targets  long  before  reaching  the  Indian  country.  And 
this  was  not  the  only  instance  of  miserable  economy, 
as  the  official  reports  show. 

"Our  train  was  in  a  sad  condition;  half  a  yoke  to 
each  wagon.  Mr.  Coolidge  was  really  to  be  pitied — 
nearly  four  hundred  miles  from  the  States,  with  but 
two  oxen  to  haul  four  large  wagons,  heavily  loaded  with 
robes  and  peltries.  The  colonel  carried  a  few  packs 
(as  many  as  he  was  able);  he  bargained  with  one  of 
the  outward-bound  trains  to  take  some  back  to  Mann's 
Fort,  and  the  rest  he  cached.  The  government  peo- 
ple crowded  their  'kits'  and  provision  in  three  wag- 
ons; and,  toward  evening  of  the  next  day,  we  crossed 
the  creek  which  had  now  subsided,  leaving  twenty-six 
wagons  and  any  amount  of  extras,  to  the  Indians  and 
the  wolves.  Toward  sundown,  as  we  were  hitching 
up  to  travel  in  the  night,  a  party  of  dragoons,  filing 
down  the  hill,  made  camp  near.  Lieutenant  J.  Love, 
commanding,  was  informed  of  the  outrage,  and  prom- 
ised satisfaction.  We  stopped  a  moment  at  the  train, 
with  which  the  first  fight  had  occurred.  One  poor  fel- 
low, named  Smith,  from  Van  Buren  County,  Missouri, 
had  been  lanced  seven  times  through  the  neck  and 
breast.  He  killed  the  Indian  that  fell,  while  on  his 
back  and  already  wounded." 

Garrard's  trip  on  the  plains  ended  in  true  story- 
book fashion,  and,  we  can  fancy,  gave  the  boy  material 


274  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

for  reminiscence  and  story-telling  for  many  a  long 
year. 

This  book,  and  many  another  of  the  period,  mention 
constantly,  and  in  most  famihar  fashion,  names  that 
to  old-timers  in  the  West  are  famihar  as  household 
words — men  whom,  in  their  old  age,  we  ourselves  per- 
haps knew;  men  with  whose  sons  and  daughters  we 
have  lived  as  contemporaries.  But  the  generation  that 
knew  these  old-timers,  Carson,  Bridger,  Jack  Robin- 
son, Jim  and  John  Baker,  Bent,  St.  Vrain,  Sublette, 
Hugh  Monroe,  Ike  Edwards,  Bill  Gary,  Symonds, 
Beaubien,  La  Jeunesse,  Rowland,  and  a  hundred  others 
whose  names  could  be  given,  has  for  the  most  part 
passed  away. 

These  names  belong  to  the  history  of  the  early  West. 
Soon  they  will  be  historic  only,  for  those  who  have 
known  them  will  also  have  crossed  the  Great  Divide, 
and  there  will  be  none  who  can  recall  their  personality. 


THE  SOLITARY  HUNTER 


THE  SOLITARY  HUNTER 
I 

PRAIRIE  TRAVEL 

IN  the  year  1847  John  PalHser,  an  Irishman,  sailed 
from  Liverpool  by  the  good  ship  "Cambria"  for 
an  extended  trip  in  America  to  make  acquaint- 
ance with  "our  Trans-Atlantic  brethren,  and  to  ex- 
tend my  visit  to  the  regions  still  inhabited  by  America's 
aboriginal  people — now,  indeed,  driven  far  westward 
of  their  rightful  territories  and  pressed  backward  into 
that  ocean  of  prairies  extending  to  the  foot  of  the  great 
Rocky  Mountains." 

Palliser  was  a  young  man  of  good  family,  the  son  of 
Colonel  Wray  Palliser,  of  Comragh,  County  Waterford. 
Like  so  many  of  his  race,  he  was  energetic,  quick- 
witted, forceful,  and  possessed  a  great  fund  of  humor. 
He  seems  to  have  been  first  of  all  a  hunter,  and  like 
all  successful  hunters  to  have  been  a  keen  and  close 
observer.  Some  time  after  his  return  to  England  he 
wrote  a  book  giving  his  experiences  of  adventure  in 
the  Far  West.  It  is  one  of  the  best  books  of  hunting 
adventure  ever  written — terse,  always  to  the  point, 
modest,  giving  facts  and  conclusions,  and  very  little 

277 


278  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

about  his  own  views  of  Hfe.  The  book  has  long  been 
out  of  print  and  is  now  not  easily  obtained,  but  it  is 
really  a  model  in  the  picture  that  it  paints  of  old-time 
conditions  and  in  the  self-efFacement  of  the  author. 

Palliser  has  long  been  forgotten.  Almost  equally 
forgotten  are  two  of  his  shipmates,  whose  names  at 
one  time  were  familiar  enough  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  These  were  "General  Tom  Thumb"  and  P.  T. 
Barnum,  who  was  bringing  Tom  Thumb  back  to  the 
United  States  after  a  season  of  exhibition  in  Europe. 

The  "Cambria"  touched  for  coal  at  Halifax  and  then 
came  on  to  Boston  and  New  York,  where  the  traveller 
stopped  at  the  Astor  House,  which,  he  says,  is  "far 
larger  than  any  hotel  I  ever  beheld  in  the  old  world." 
From  New  York  he  went  down  to  Philadelphia,  Balti- 
more, Cumberland,  and  Wheeling,  and  from  there  down 
the  Ohio  River  to  the  Mississippi  and  to  St.  Louis  and 
New  Orleans.  His  whole  journey,  though  described 
briefly,  is  full  of  effective  touches,  and  his  comments 
and  criticisms  are  keen  but  kindly.  To  a  description 
of  New  Orleans  he  gives  some  space,  and  speaks  with 
cordial  warmth  of  the  friendhness  and  hospitahty  of 
the  Creole  inhabitants. 

From  New  Orleans  he  went  up  the  Mississippi  and 
Arkansas  (spelled  phonetically  Arkansor)  Rivers,  and 
spent  some  time  hunting  small  game,  deer,  bear,  and, 
by  good  fortune,  killed  a  fine  panther.  A  more  or  less 
amusing  tale,  which  Palliser  quotes  from  an  experience 
of  his  brother  a  year  before,  is  worth  repeating. 


The  Solitary  Hunter  279 

"One  day,  when  comfortably  seated  with  Jackson 
and  his  family,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Lake  Jefferson, 
a  Httle  nigger  come  running  in,  shouting,  'Oh,  massa! 
terrible  big  aUigator;  him  run  at  me.'  When  we  got 
him  to  speak  a  Httle  more  coherently,  it  appeared  that 
he  had  been  bathing  in  the  lake,  and  that  an  aUigator 
had  suddenly  rushed  at  him,  and  when  the  boy,  who 
luckily  was  not  in  deep  water,  had  escaped  by  running 
to  land,  the  brute  had  actually  pursued  him  for  some 
distance  along  the  shore.  We  instantly  loaded  our  ri- 
fles and  started  off  in  quest  of  the  monster,  accompanied 
by  the  boy,  who  carhe  as  guide.  After  carefully  explor- 
ing the  bank  and  reeds,  though  unsuccessfully,  we  con- 
cealed ourselves,  in  hopes  of  seeing  him  rise  to  the 
top  of  the  water  when  he  thought  the  coast  was  clear; 
but  as  we  waited  a  long  time  without  any  result,  we 
proposed  what  certainly  was  a  most  nefarious  project; 
namely,  to  make  the  boy  strip  off  his  clothes  and  start 
him  into  the  water  again  as  a  bait  for  the  alligator.  It 
was  some  time  before  we  could  get  the  boy  to  come 
round  to  our  view  of  the  matter:  his  objections  to  our 
plan  were  very  strong,  and  his  master's  threats  failed 
completely,  as  indeed  they  generally  did;  for  he  was 
the  kindest-hearted  man  in  the  world  to  his  negroes. 
At  last  I  coaxed  him  with  a  bright  new  dollar.  This 
inducement  prevailed  over  his  fears,  and  the  poor  boy 
began  to  undress,  his  eyes  all  the  while  reverting  alter- 
nately from  the  water  to  the  dollar,  and  from  the  dol- 
lar to  the  water.     We  told  him  we  did  not  want  him 


28o  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

to  go  in  so  deep  as  to  be  obliged  to  swim.  '  By  golly, 
then,  me  go  for  dollare';  and  in  he  walked,  but  had 
hardly  reached  water  higher  than  his  knees,  when 
crash  went  the  reeds,  and  the  little  fellow  cut  in  towards 
our  place  of  concealment  at  an  astonishing  pace,  pur- 
sued by  the  alligator.  The  savage  beast,  as  before, 
came  right  out  on  the  bank,  where  we  nailed  him  with 
two  capital  shots  through  the  head,  that  eflFectually 
checked  his  career.  He  struggled  violently,  but  use- 
lessly, to  regain  his  congenial  element,  and,  after  two 
or  three  furious  lashes  of  his  ponderous  tail,  sullenly 
expired.     The  triumph  of  the  boy  was  complete." 

Palhser  next  went  to  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  after  a 
pause  in  that  State  to  inspect  the  Mammoth  Cave,  re- 
turned to  Louisville,  where  he  took  the  boat  for  St. 
Louis  to  make  preparations  for  his  Rocky  Mountain 
trip.  He  locates  in  St.  Louis  that  excellent  story  which 
has  been  so  often  told  in  the  last  sixty  years  about  the 
two  great  talkers  who  were  matched  on  a  bet  to  see 
which  should  outtalk  the  other. 

"Old  Mr.  Cohen  was  universally  considered  a  great 
talker,  so  much  so,  that  he  even  admitted  it  himself; 
but  this  evening  a  formidable  rival  appeared  against 
him  in  the  person  of  a  strange  character  from  Ken- 
tucky, who  fairly  met  him  on  his  own  ground,  and  after 
supper  evinced  such  unceasing  powers  of  conversation, 
that  old  Mr.  Cohen  was  unable  to  get  in  a  word,  and 
was  fain  to  claim  a  hearing.  'Let  me  speak,  let  me 
speak,'  he  gasped  several  times  but  with  no  avail;  till. 


The  Solitary  Hunter  281 

at  last,  the  fool's  argument  was  resorted  to,  and  a  bet 
made  which  should  talk  the  longest.  An  umpire  was 
chosen  to  determine  which  of  the  two  loquacious  com- 
batants should  be  the  winner;  but,  as  might  naturally 
be  supposed,  none  of  us  had  the  patience  to  sit  out  the 
contest,  so  we  went  off  to  bed,  leaving  a  plentiful 
supply  of  brandy,  sugar,  and  iced  water.  Next  morn- 
ing, at  a  quarter  past  five,  victory  was  declared  for 
Missouri,  the  umpire  returning  at  that  hour  and  find- 
ing the  Kentucky  man  fast  asleep  in  his  arm  chair,  and 
old  Mr.  Cohen  sitting  up  close  beside  him  and  whisper- 
ing in  his  ear." 

PaUiser  soon  started  for  Independence,  Mo.,  the 
great  outfitting  point  for  the  fur  trade  in  those  days, 
when  the  plains  and  mountains  were  free.  At  Inde- 
pendence he  met  Mr.  Kipp — James  Kipp — one  of  the 
best-known  traders  of  early  days  and  the  builder  of 
some  of  the  first  trading  posts  far  up  the  river.  For 
twenty  years  before  this,  it  had  been  James  Kipp's 
practice  to  go  down  the  river  in  the  summer  with  the 
fur  company's  flotilla  of  mackinaw  boats,  and  in  the 
autumn  to  ride  north  again  to  the  mouth  of  Yellow- 
stone River,  a  distance  of  something  like  fifteen  hun- 
dred miles.  James  Kipp  is  the  bourgeois  mentioned 
by  Catlin  as  his  host  among  the  Mandans  when,  in 
1834,  he  was  painting  on  the  upper  river. 

The  party  that  set  out  from  Independence  on  the 
2d  of  September  numbered  seventeen  or  eighteen, 
of  whom  the  greater  number  were  French  Creoles  and 


282  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Canadians  to  whom  PalHser  pays  the  wholly  deserved 
compHment  that  they  were  "docile,  patient,  enduring 
fellows  with  constitutions  like  iron,  well  practiced  in 
journeys  of  this  kind  and  character."  Their  beds  and 
supplies  were  carried  on  pack-animals,  and  they  trav- 
elled for  some  days  through  a  country  very  thinly 
settled  and  occupied  in  part  by  the  Mormons.  "The 
last  spot  where  we  saw  white  faces  was  the  Council 
Bluffs,  the  trading  post  and  the  residence  of  a  Govern- 
ment Agent,  where  we  remained  a  day  supplying  our- 
selves with  coffee,  sugar,  and  biscuit,  salt  pork,  and 
beans,  as  we  did  not  expect  for  some  time  yet  to  reach 
a  good  hunting  country." 

The  camps  made  after  they  had  passed  out  of  the 
settled  region,  where  they  lived  at  farm-houses,  showed 
a  method  of  life  wholly  new  to  Palliser,  and  one  which 
to  many  Americans  is  as  unknown  to-day  as  it  was  to 
him.  "A  little  before  sunset,  we  unsaddled  and  un- 
packed our  horses,  placing  the  packs  and  saddle  of  each 
rider  in  a  separate  pile,  at  equal  distances,  so  as  to 
form  a  circular  enclosure  about  ten  paces  in  diameter; 
and  after  watering  and  'hobling'  the  horses,  i.e.  at- 
taching the  fore  and  hind  legs  on  one  side  together  by 
means  of  an  iron  chain,  with  a  leathern  strap  around 
the  fetlock,  to  prevent  their  straying,  we  turned  them 
loose  to  graze;  not  till  then  considering  ourselves  at 
liberty  to  attend  to  our  own  comforts.  Our  first  busi- 
ness was,  then,  to  cut  and  gather  wood,  and  to  light  a 
fire  in  the  centre  of  the  circle,  fetching  some  water  in 


The  Solitary  Hunter  283 

the  kettles,  and  putting  the  meat  on  to  cook,  and  ma- 
king our  beds  of  saddle-cloths,  blankets,  and  buffalo 
robes:  this  done,  we  roasted  our  coffee  berries,  and  hav- 
ing wrapped  them  in  a  piece  of  deer  or  buffalo  skin, 
and  pounded  themin  the  stump  of  a  tree  with  the  back 
of  a  hatchet,  put  them  in  our  coffee  pot  and  boiled 
them;  and  the  meat  being  cooked  by  the  time  this 
process  was  over,  and  the  coffee  made,  we  fell  to  with 
great  appetite.  After  supper,  we  lighted  our  pipes, 
and  then  each  turned  in  when  he  felt  inclined,  and, 
with  his  feet  to  the  fire,  slept  as  only  travellers  in  the 
prairie  can  sleep.  Before  day  we  were  up  again,  un- 
hobled  and  watered  our  horses,  loaded  the  packs,  and 
were  all  in  the  saddle  by  sunrise."  The  morning  halt 
for  breakfast  was  made  about  eleven  o'clock,  the  horses 
were  allowed  to  graze,  and  at  one  the  train  started 
again,  to  travel  until  dark. 

The  country  through  which  they  were  passing  had 
been  thoroughly  hunted  by  Indians,  and  the  camp  was 
out  of  meat,  and  had  no  food  except  beans.  However, 
the  fall  migration  of  the  wild  fowl  was  on;  at  least  the 
lakes  and  streams  were  occupied  by  plenty  of  ducks. 
Palliser  set  out  with  two  of  the  hunters  to  try  to  kill 
some  of  these,  but  found  that  neither  of  the  men  could 
shoot  on  the  wing.  "It  was  amusing  to  see  how  as- 
tounded they  were  at  my  knocking  over  a  fine  mallard, 
that  came  wheeling  over  our  heads;  they  insisted  on 
its  being  a  chance  shot,  and  would  not  be  persuaded 
to  the  contrary,  until  I  brought  down  several  succes- 


284  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

sively;  and  at  last,  with  a  most  satisfactory  right  and 
left,  silenced  their  scepticism  completely.  They  were 
greatly  delighted;  'Mais  comment  diahle,  monsieur, 
faites-vous  cela?^  said  one  hardy  old  veteran  to  me.  I 
oflFered  to  instruct  him,  but  could  not  get  him  to  fire 
rapidly  enough,  as  he  was  afraid  of  wasting  his  ammuni- 
tion, which  was  very  expensive." 

On  this  journey  they  saw  the  approach  of  a  prairie 
fire — a  splendid  and  terrible  sight — but  succeeded  in 
cutting  it  off  by  back-firing.  The  old  French  voya- 
geurs  declare  that  the  Indians  were  travelhng  about. 
This  experience  suggested  to  Palliser  a  description 
given  him  by  a  brother  sportsman  of  a  fire  which  he 
had  witnessed.  "We  had  seen,  during  the  latter  part 
of  our  day's  journey,  a  remarkable  appearance  in  the 
eastern  horizon;  and  during  supper  observed  a  smell  of 
burning,  and  a  few  hght  cinders  fell  about  the  camp, 
and  presently  we  remarked  that  the  luminous  appear- 
ance in  the  east  had  very  much  augmented.  There 
being  a  little  hill  in  front  of  us,  we  could  not  see  dis- 
tinctly what  caused  it;  but  having  consulted  together, 
we  agreed  that  it  proceeded  from  a  prairie  on  fire,  which, 
however,  was  a  long  way  off.  About  eight  o'clock  the 
smell  of  burning  and  the  glare  having  materially  in- 
creased, we  walked  up  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  when  a 
spectacle  presented  itself  to  us  the  most  grand  that 
can  well  be  conceived.  The  whole  horizon,  from  north 
to  south,  was  one  wall  of  fire,  blazing  up  in  some  places 
to  a  great  height,  at  others  merely  smouldering  in  the 


The  Solitary  Hunter  285 

grass.  It  was,  however,  at  least,  eight  miles  off;  but 
the  wind  seemed  to  set  in  our  direction,  so  we  instantly 
returned,  and  took  measures  to  preserve  the  camp. 
We  were  in  a  corner,  as  it  were,  on  the  bank  of  the 
stream,  with  a  good  deal  of  brushwood  running  up  on 
our  left,  and  the  ground  sloping  up  gradually  from  the 
creek  to  the  top  of  the  hill.  Our  guides,  on  looking  at 
the  fire,  said  that  it  would  not  harm  us — ' Ce  nest  rien 
— le  vent  change.'  In  short,  they  would  do  nothing. 
In  about  twenty  minutes,  however,  it  approached  so 
near  that  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost,  and  all  hands 
were  immediately  employed  in  burning  a  road  across 
the  face  of  the  hill,  so  as  to  stop  the  fire  at  that  part. 
A  more  picturesque  scene  could  hardly  be  imagined. 
The  night  was  very  dark,  but  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach,  all  across  the  horizon,  about  four  miles  in  front 
of  us,  was  a  broad,  bright,  lurid  glare  of  fire,  with  a 
thick  canopy  of  smoke  hanging  over  it,  whose  fantastic 
wreaths,  as  they  curled  in  the  breeze,  were  tinged  with 
the  red  reflection  of  the  flames.  Even  at  that  dis- 
tance we  could  hear  the  crackling  and  rushing  of  the 
fire,  which,  as  it  advanced,  caused  a  strong  wind,  and 
every  now  and  then  a  brighter  flame  would  shoot  high 
up  into  the  black  cloud  of  smoke  over  the  top  of  the 
hill,  illuminating  for  an  instant  our  tents  and  waggons 
in  the  dark  hollow,  and  giving  a  momentary  glimpse  of 
the  horses  which  were  picketed  on  the  side  of  the  rise, 
on  the  crest  of  which  the  figures  of  the  men  engaged  in 
lighting  the  opposition  fire  (which,  as  it  became  too 


286  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

extended,  they  beat  down  with  blankets,  only  suflPering 
it  to  burn  a  space  about  twelve  feet  broad,  right  across 
the  line  of  the  advancing  conflagration),  stood  out  in 
strong  relief  against  the  glowing  wall  of  light  beyond 
them;  and  as  they  ran  about,  tossing  their  arms,  and 
waving  the  blankets  and  little  torches  of  lighted  grass, 
they  looked  in  the  distance  Hke  demons  rather  than 
men.  We  had  no  time  to  look  at  the  picturesque,  how- 
ever, for  every  moment  (owing  to  their  previous  obsti- 
nacy in  neglecting  to  take  precaution  in  time)  became 
more  pregnant  with  danger,  and  by  the  time  they  had 
burned  as  much  as  would  only  about  half  cover  the 
camp,  the  fire  was  raging  in  the  bottom  at  the  other 
side  of  the  hill.  I  ran  up  for  an  instant  to  the  top, 
and  shall  never  forget  the  scene.  Although  still  half 
a  mile  off,  the  fire  seemed  close  to  me,  and  the  heat 
and  smoke  were  almost  intolerable,  while  the  dazzling 
brightness  of  the  flames  made  it  painful  to  look  at 
them;  they  were  in  three  lines  nearly  parallel,  the  first 
of  which  was  just  below  me,  burning  with  a  rushing 
noise,  and  crackhng  as  it  caught  the  dry  grass,  that 
gave  an  idea  of  total  destruction  which  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  convey,  and  stretching  away  over  hill  and 
dale  for  twelve  or  fourteen  miles  on  each  side  of  me, 
lighting  up  the  sides  of  the  hills  and  the  little  groves  of 
wood  far  away.  The  two  lines  in  the  rear  were  not  so 
much  connected,  and  seemed  rather  licking  up  any 
little  spots  of  grass  which  had  escaped  at  first.  Every 
now  and  then  a  prairie  hen  would  flirr  past,  flying  in  a 


The  Solitary  Hunter  287 

wild  uncertain  manner,  as  if  fear  had  almost  deprived 
it  of  the  use  of  its  wings;  while  all  the  songsters  of  the 
grove  were  wheeling  about  among  the  trees,  uttering 
the  most  expressive  cries  of  alarm,  and  the  melan- 
choly hooting  of  several  owls,  and  wailing  yells  of  the 
wolves,  together  with  the  shouts  and  cries  of  the  men, 
almost  drowned  occasionally  by  the  roaring  of  the 
flames,  added  to  the  savage  grandeur  of  the  scene,  and 
one  could  have  fancied  the  end  of  all  things  was  at 
hand.  On  returning  to  the  camp,  I  found  all  hands 
cutting  the  lassoes  and  halters  of  the  mules,  some  of 
which  galloped  off  instantly  into  the  river,  where  they 
remained  standing  till  the  hurricane  of  flame  had 
passed  over;  the  others,  seemingly  trusting  themselves 
instinctively  more  to  man  than  to  their  own  energies 
in  such  an  emergency,  followed  us  up  the  space  which 
we  had  burned,  and  remained  quietly  there,  trembhng 
indeed,  but  without  an  effort  to  escape.  By  the  time 
the  animals  were  collected  in  this  spot,  the  fire  was 
blazing  on  the  top  of  the  hill,  and  we  all  rushed  away 
with  blankets  to  arrest  its  progress,  if  possible,  at  the 
part  which  we  had  left  unguarded;  all  our  efforts  would 
have  been  in  vain,  however,  and  our  tents  and  every- 
thing else  must  have  been  consumed,  but  that,  just  at 
that  weak  point,  the  grass  suddenly  became  thin  and 
scanty,  with  much  stony  ground,  and  we  had  the  sat- 
isfaction of  seeing  the  flames  stopped  there  and  turned 
oft  to  the  northward  along  the  edge  of  the  brushwood. 
It  was  really  terrific  to  be,  as  we  were,  trying  to  break 


288  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

it  down  in  the  very  middle  of  the  blaze  (which,  after 
all,  was  so  narrow  that  where  the  flames  were  not  high, 
you  could  jump  across  it);  we  were,  indeed,  nearly 
suffocated  by  the  smoke  and  heat.  As  soon  as  we  per- 
ceived the  fire  turned  off,  we  returned  to  the  camp 
and  horses,  and  all  danger  was  over;  but  the  sight  of 
the  three  lines  of  fire  stretching  up  the  rising  grounds 
behind  the  camp,  just  like  the  advance  of  a  vast  army, 
was  magnificent;  and  it  was  still  more  extraordinary 
to  watch  the  manner  in  which  the  fire  passed  itself  on, 
as  it  were,  over  the  tops  of  the  highest  trees,  to  the 
height  of  at  least  forty  or  fifty  feet.  The  whole  scene 
lasted  altogether  about  two  hours,  and  nothing  could 
be  conceived  more  awfully  grand.  The  extraordinary 
rushing  and  crackling  sound  of  the  flames  was  one  of 
the  most  terrific  parts  of  it,  and  when  one  considers 
that  the  grass  is  nowhere  more  than  five  or  six  feet 
high,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how  the  flame  blazes  up 
to  such  a  vast  height  as  it  did.  The  contrast  pre- 
sented, two  hours  afterwards,  was  most  striking.  In- 
stead of  the  brilliant  glare  of  the  fire,  and  lurid  ap- 
pearance of  the  sky,  there  reigned  an  impenetrable 
darkness,  earth  and  sky  being  alike  shrouded  in  a 
black  gloom,  which  could  almost  be  felt;  not  a  star  was 
to  be  seen,  and  the  air  retained  a  suffocating,  sulphure- 
ous smell,  as  if  Satan  himself  had  passed  over  the  earth. 
We  could  not  distinguish  objects  at  ten  paces'  dis- 
tance, and  were  right  glad  when  a  fresh  breeze  came 
gently    breathing    over    the    prairie,    dissipating    the 


The  Solitary  Hunter  289 

murky  vapors  still  hanging  in  the  atmosphere;  and  a 
fine  starlit  sky,  with  a  sharpish  frost,  at  length  relieved 
us  from  the  close,  choking  feehng  we  had  experienced 
for  hours  before.  This  prairie  fire  had  travelled  at  the 
rate  of  five  miles  an  hour,  bringing  with  it  a  strong 
gale  of  wind;  for,  otherwise,  the  night  was  quite  calm, 
both  before  and  after  it  had  passed  over." 

At  Fort  Vermilion  the  Kipp  party  found  a  camp  of 
Sioux  who  were  dancing  in  triumph  over  the  scalp  of  a 
woman.  With  these  Indians  they  at  once  estabHshed 
friendly  relations.  The  Sioux  had  a  woman  captive, 
whom  Palliser  and  Kipp  purchased  and  set  free.  Here 
some  of  their  best  horses  were  stolen,  not  perhaps  by 
the  Indians  of  this  camp,  but  by  others. 

Game  was  scarce  and  the  white  men  were  requested 
by  the  Indians  who  were  about  to  start  out  on  their 
autumn  bufFalo-hunt  to  travel  with  them,  and  not  to 
move  on  in  advance  lest  they  should  frighten  the 
game,  if  any  were  about.  The  old-time  moving  of  an 
Indian  camp,  with  its  men  marching  at  the  head  and 
on  the  flanks  and  the  women  with  their  travois  in  the 
column,  is  well  described.  Scouts  had  been  sent  on  in 
advance  by  the  Indians  to  look  for  buffalo,  and  orders 
were  given  that  no  one  should  pass  far  beyond  the 
camp. 

Palliser  went  out  on  foot  to  try  to  kill  some  ducks 
along  a  little  stream,  and  while  looking  for  the  birds 
was  startled  by  the  sound  of  a  gun  just  behind  and  the 
whistle  of  a  bullet  passing  near  his  head.     The  shot 


290  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

was  fired  by  an  Indian  not  far  from  him.  Palliser  ran 
to  him  and  threatened  to  shoot  him  if  he  tried  to  re- 
load his  gun.  Another  Indian  who  came  up  acted  as 
mediator,  and  explained  what  had  happened.  Palliser 
had  not  fully  understood  the  order  issued  by  the  chiefs, 
and  the  man  who  shot  at  him  was  no  doubt  a  "soldier," 
trying  to  make  the  white  man  go  into  camp. 

The  next  day  the  Indians  turned  off  toward  the 
buffalo  and  the  white  men  went  on,  and  not  very  long 
after  reached  Fort  Pierre,  the  site  of  the  present  city 
of  Pierre,  S.  D.  Not  long  after  leaving  Fort  Pierre, 
early  in  October,  they  came  upon  buffalo,  which  Pal- 
Hser  is  careful  to  note  should  be  called  bison,  and  on 
the  27th  of  October  reached  Fort  Union,  then  the  chief 
depot  of  the  American  Fur  Company's  trade  through 
the  upper  Missouri. 

II 

BUFFALO-RUNNING 

Buffalo  were  plenty  and  here  PalHser  had  his  first 
run.  His  views  on  buffalo-hunting — that  extinct  sport 
— are  quite  worth  quoting: 

"Buffalo-hunting  is  a  noble  sport,  the  animal  being 
swift  enough  to  give  a  good  horse  enough  to  do  to  close 
with  him;  wheehng  round  with  such  quickness  as  to 
bafHe  both  horse  and  rider  for  several  turns  before  there 
is  any  certainty  of  bringing  him  down.  Added  to 
which,  there  is  the  danger  of  being  charged  by  one  old 


The  Solitary  Hunter  291 

bull  while  in  pursuit  of  another;  this,  however,  they 
will  not  often  do,  unless  when  blown  by  the  awkward- 
ness of  a  bad  hunter,  in  chasing  them  too  far,  when 
they  turn  and  get  desperate. 

"The  first  object  in  approaching  a  herd  of  buffalo 
should  be,  to  get  as  near  as  possible  before  charging 
them;  then,  rush  in  with  your  horse  at  full  speed,  sin- 
gle out  one  animal,  and  detach  him  from  the  herd, 
which  you  will  soon  do,  and  after  a  turn  or  two  be  able 
to  get  a  broadside  shot,  when  you  should  endeavour  to 
strike  him  behind  the  fore-shoulder.  While  reloading, 
slacken  your  horse's  speed  to  a  hand  gallop.  The 
general  method  of  loading  is  to  empty  the  charge  from 
the  horn  slung  round  your  neck  into  the  palm  of  your 
hand,  whence  you  can  more  easily  pour  it  down  the 
barrel;  you  then  take  a  bullet  wet  out  of  your  mouth, 
and  throw  it  down  upon  the  powder;  by  which  means 
you  avoid  the  necessity  of  using  the  ramrod,  a  most 
inconvenient  process  when  riding  fast  on  horseback. 
I  found  it  from  experience  better  to  dispense  with  both 
powderhorn,  ramrod,  and  copper  caps  altogether,  and 
use  a  Hght  self-priming  flint  gun,  carrying  the  powder 
loose  in  the  skirt  pockets  of  my  shooting-coat,  and 
thereby  having  no  further  delay  than  to  thrust  my 
hand  in  for  it  and  empty  it  down  the  barrel  of  my 
gun;  accuracy  in  quantity  at  such  close  quarters  being 
of  small  importance.  Taking  the  bullet  from  the 
mouth  is  both  the  quickest  and  safest  method  of  load^ 
ing;  quicker  than  fumbling  for  it  in  your  pocket,  and 


292  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

safer,  because  its  being  wet  causes  it  to  stick  for  a 
moment  without  roHing  forward  on  depressing  the 
muzzle  to  take  aim;  and  my  brother  sportsmen  are 
doubtless  aware  of  the  danger  of  leaving  an  empty 
space  in  the  barrel  between  the  powder  and  the  ball. 
I  would  not,  however,  recommend  any  one  to  depend 
too  much  upon  the  detention  of  the  wet  bullet,  but  to 
fire  immediately  on  lowering  the  muzzle.  I  ought 
here  to  mention,  that  in  running  buffalo,  you  never 
bring  the  gun  to  your  shoulder  in  firing,  but  present  it 
across  the  pummel  of  the  saddle,  calculating  the  angle 
with  }^our  eye  and  steadying  3^ourself  momentarily  by 
standing  in  the  stirrups  as  you  take  aim.  This  is  diffi- 
cult to  do  at  first,  and  requires  considerable  practice; 
but  the  facility  once  acquired,  the  ease  and  unerring 
steadiness  with  which  you  can  shoot  is  most  satisfac- 
tory, and  any  one  accustomed  to  this  method  con- 
demns ever  afterward  the  lifting  of  a  gun  to  the 
shoulder  whilst  riding  at  speed,  as  the  most  awkward 
and  unscientific  bungling. 

"We  drew  up  our  horses,  and  proceeded  to  skin  and 
cut  up  the  animals,  and  were  soon  joined  by  the  drays 
despatched  from  the  fort  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
home  the  meat.  What  we  had  killed  that  day  was  very 
good  and  tolerably  fat.  I  have  before  adverted  to  the 
excellence  of  bison  beef,  and  the  superiority  of  its  fat 
over  that  of  the  domestic  ox;  but  before  leaving  the 
subject,  I  will  state  two  instances  in  which  I  myself 
saw  this  superiority  fully  established. 


The  Solitary  Hunter  293 

"Old  Mr.  Kipp,  at  Christmas,  thinking  to  give  all 
the  employes  and  voyageurs  of  the  Fur  Company  at 
Fort  Union  a  great  treat,  had  for  some  time  previously 
been  fattening  up  a  very  nice  small-boned  heifer  cow, 
which  was  killed  in  due  time,  in  prime  condition.  All 
who  had  been  reckoning  on  the  treat  this  would  afford 
them,  sat  down  in  high  expectation  of  the  ensuing  feast; 
but  after  eating  a  little  while  in  silence,  gradually 
dropped  off  one  by  one  to  the  bison  meat,  which  was 
also  on  the  table,  and  were  finally  unanimous  in  con- 
demning the  beef,  which  they  said  was  good  enough, 
but  nothing  remarkable,  and  the  fat  sickening.  A 
plate-full  of  it  was  also  given,  as  ordinary  buffalo 
beef,  to  an  Indian  woman  in  another  room  at  the  fort, 
on  the  same  occasion:  she  pronounced  it  good  food, 
but,  said  she,  'it  is  both  coarse  and  insipid';  and  the 
fat,  if  she  were  to  eat  much  of  it,  would  make  her 
sick. 

"I  mention  these  circumstances,  having  been  one  of 
the  very  few  who  have  seen  the  comparative  merits 
of  the  two  meats  tested  by  Europeans,  Americans,  and 
Indians  at  the  same  time,  and  heard  the  unanimous 
verdict  in  favour  of  the  wild  bison." 

It  is  worth  noting  that  Indians  who  are  old  enough  to 
have  known  buffalo  all  declare  that  the  flesh  of  domestic 
cattle  tastes  badly  and  has  an  evil  smell.  This,  to  be 
sure,  may  mean  no  more  than  that  the  flesh  and  fat 
have  an  unusual  taste  and  smell,  which  is  disagreeable, 
because  unusual.     Probably,  however,  no  one  who  has 


294  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

habitually  eaten  buffalo  meat  but  will  acknowledge 
that  it  is  far  more  tender  and  dehcate  than  the  flesh 
of  domestic  cattle. 

During  the  winter  hunting  was  continuous.  In- 
dians constantly  came  to  the  post  to  trade  or  to  beg. 
An  interesting  visitor  was  old  Bill  Williams,  a  famous 
trapper  of  that  day,  who  had  long  been  believed  dead. 
He  was  one  of  a  party  attacked  by  Blackfeet,  when 
all  except  Williams  had  been  killed. 

This  winter  Palliser  witnessed  a  fight  between  the 
Sioux  and  the  Assiniboines  which  seems  to  have  re- 
sulted in  a  draw,  though  one  Sioux  was  killed.  These 
Sioux,  by  the  way,  were  very  troublesome  and  had  shot 
many  of  the  milch  cows,  and,  more  serious  than  all,  a 
fine  thoroughbred  bull  which  belonged  at  the  post. 

"The  loss  of  this  handsome,  noble  animal  was  uni- 
versally regretted  in  the  fort,  for  besides  his  great 
value  as  their  only  means  of  continuing  the  breed  of 
domestic  cattle  in  that  remote  region,  he  proved  most 
useful  in  drawing  home  many  a  heavy  load  of  meat, 
and  much  of  the  wood  for  the  fuel  in  the  fort;  as  a 
tribute  to  his  memory,  I  must  here  record  a  single 
combat  of  his  with  a  bison,  which,  according  to  the 
description  of  his  keeper,  'Black  Joseph,'  must  have 
been  truly  Homeric. 

"About  three  months  previous  to  my  arrival  at  Fort 
Union,  and  in  the  height  of  the  buffalo  breeding  sea- 
son, when  their  bulls  are  sometimes  very  fierce,  Joe 
was  taking  the  Fort  Union  bull,  with  a   cart,  into   a 


The  Solitary  Hunter  295 

point  on  the  river  above  the  fort,  in  order  to  draw 
home  a  load  of  wood,  which  had  been  previously  cut 
and  piled  ready  for  transportation  the  day  before, 
when  a  very  large  old  bison  bull  stood  right  in  the  cart 
track,  pawing  up  the  earth,  and  roaring,  ready  to  dis- 
pute the  passage  with  him.  On  a  nearer  approach,  in- 
stead of  flying  at  the  sight  of  the  man  that  accompanied 
the  cart,  the  bison  made  a  headlong  charge.  Joe  had 
barely  time  to  remove  his  bull's  head-stall  and  escape 
up  a  tree,  being  utterly  unable  to  assist  his  four-footed 
friend,  whom  he  left  to  his  own  resources.  Bison  and 
bull,  now  in  mortal  combat,  met  midway  with  a  shock 
that  made  the  earth  tremble.  Our  previously  docile 
gentle  animal  suddenly  became  transformed  into  a 
furious  beast,  springing  from  side  to  side,  whirling 
round  as  the  buffalo  attempted  to  take  him  in  flank, 
alternately  upsetting  and  righting  the  cart  again, 
which  he  banged  from  side  to  side,  and  whirled  about 
as  if  it  had  been  a  band-box.  Joe,  safe  out  of  harm's 
way,  looked  down  from  the  tree  at  his  champion's 
proceedings,  at  first  deploring  the  apparent  disadvan- 
tage he  laboured  under,  from  being  harnessed  to  a  cart; 
but  when  the  fight  had  lasted  long  and  furious,  and  it 
was  evident  that  both  combatants  had  determined 
that  one  or  other  of  them  must  fall,  his  eyes  were 
opened  to  the  value  of  the  protection  aff'orded  by  the 
harness,  and  especially  by  the  thick  strong  shafts  of 
the  cart  against  the  short  horns  of  the  bison,  who, 
although  he  bore  him  over  and  over  again  down  on  his 


296  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

haunches,  could  not  wound  him  severely.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  long  sharp  horns  of  the  brave  Fort 
Union  bull  began  to  tell  on  the  furrowed  sides  of  his 
antagonist,  until  the  final  charge  brought  the  bison, 
with  a  furious  bound,  dead  under  our  hero's  feet,  whose 
long  fine-drawn  horn  was  deep  driven  into  his  adver- 
sary's heart.  With  a  cheer  that  made  the  woods  ring 
again,  down  clambered  Joe,  and  while  triumphantly 
caressing,  also  carefully  examined  his  chivalrous  com- 
panion, who,  although  bruised,  blown,  and  covered 
with  foam,  had  escaped  uninjured. 

*'It  required  all  Joe's  nigger  eloquence  to  persuade 
the  bull  to  leave  the  slain  antagonist,  over  whom  he 
long  stood  watching,  evidently  expecting  him  to  get  up 
again  to  renew  the  combat,  Joe  all  the  time  coaxing 
him  forward  with,  'Him  dear  good  bull,  him  go  home 
now,  and  do  no  more  work  to-day,'  which  prospect, 
black  Joe,  in  common  with  all  his  sable  brethren,  con- 
sidered as  the  acme  of  sublunary  feHcity." 

During  this  winter  the  people  at  Fort  Union  were 
attacked  by  an  epidemic  which  laid  up  many  of  them. 
Those  who  were  not  incapacitated  by  illness  were, 
therefore,  obliged  to  hunt  the  harder  to  supply  the  post 
with  food,  for  in  that  country  and  at  that  time  food 
meant  meat  almost  exclusively.  Buffalo-running  in 
winter  is  often  hard  work,  and  when  to  the  winter 
weather  are  added  the  difficulties  of  deep  snow,  the 
work  becomes  not  only  hard  but  dangerous.  Some  in- 
cidents of  a  winter  run  are  given  in  Palliser's  account 


The  Solitary  Hunter  297 

of  his  kilHng  some  meat  four  or  five  miles  from  the  post. 
He  "had  a  splendid  run,  flooring  a  cow  and  wounding  a 
bull,  which  I  left  for  the  present,  and  then  stretching 
away  at  full  speed,  I  pursued  after  another  uncom- 
monly fine  fat  cow.  She  gave  me  an  awful  chase, 
turning  and  doubling  incessantly.  My  little  horse  was 
sorely  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  snow  and  began  to  show 
symptoms  of  distress;  but  I  could  not  manage  to  get  a 
broadside  shot.  At  last  making  one  more  push,  I  got 
pretty  close  behind  her  and  raising  myself  in  my  stir- 
rups fired  down  upon  her.  .  .  .  She  dropped  at  the  re- 
port, the  bullet  breaking  her  spine.  My  little  horse, 
unable  to  stop  himself,  rolled  right  over  her,  making  a 
complete  somersault,  and  sending  me,  gun  and  all, 
flying  clean  over  both  of  them  into  a  snowdrift.  I 
leaped  up,  ran  back  to  my  horse,  which  I  caught  with- 
out much  difficulty,  and  was  glad  to  find  no  more  hurt 
than  myself.  My  gun  was  filled  with  snow,  of  course, 
but  otherwise  uninjured," 

The  friendly  relations  between  the  domestic  cattle 
and  the  buff"alo  caused  PaUiser  much  surprise,  for  he 
was  unaware  that  cattle  and  buffalo  associate  inti- 
mately and  sometimes  interbreed. 

Cases  have  been  recorded  where  buffalo  in  their 
stampede  have  carried  off  considerable  numbers  of  cat- 
tle, which  became  as  wild  as  the  buffalo  with  which 
they  associated.  Another  point  new  to  Palliser,  and 
perhaps  not  well  understood  by  naturalists  at  present, 
is  the  fact  that  buffalo  do  not,  as  a   rule,  use   their 


298  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

hoofs  to  remove  the  snow  from  the  ground,  but  push 
the  snow  aside  with  the  nose.  PaUiser  says:  "I  was 
still  more  astonished,  on  attentively  observing  this 
friendly  intercourse,  to  see  our  little  calves  apparently 
preferring  the  companionship  of  the  bison,  particu- 
larly that  of  the  most  colossal  bulls,  to  that  of  their 
own  species.  I  took  an  opportunity  one  morning  of 
investigating  the  reason  of  this  more  closely,  and  avail- 
ing myself  of  some  broken  ground,  beyond  which  I 
saw  three  of  our  poor  little  half-starved  calves  in  com- 
pany with  two  gigantic  bulls,  I  crept  up  very  carefully, 
and  lay  under  the  brow  of  a  hill,  not  fifty  yards  from 
the  nearest  in  order  to  observe  them,  and  was  not  long 
in  discovering  that  the  bison  has  the  power  of  removing 
the  snow  with  his  admirably-shaped  shovel-nose  so  as 
to  obtain  the  grass  underneath  it.  His  Httle  compan- 
ions, unable  to  remove  the  frozen  obstacle  for  them- 
selves, were  thankfully  and  fearlessly  feeding  in  his 
wake;  the  little  heads  of  two  of  them  visible  every  now 
and  then,  contesting  an  exposed  morsel  under  his  very 
beard.  It  was  an  interesting  sight,  and  I  crept  softly 
away  again,  so  as  not  to  disturb  them. 

"Although  the  bison  scrapes  the  snow  with  his  nose, 
I  do  not  think  he  does  so  with  his  hoofs.  I  have  fre- 
quently seen  the  snow,  where  buffalo  have  been  feed- 
ing, stained  with  slight  signs  of  blood,  and  after  having 
shot  them,  found  the  noses  of  both  cow  and  bull  sore 
from  the  constant  shovelling." 

Buffalo-hunting  was  not  without  its  excitement.     On 


The  Solitary  Hunter  299 

a  certain  day,  for  example,  with  an  Indian,  he  killed 
three  bulls,  one  of  which  was  shot  four  times,  and 
though  seeming  very  weak  did  not  fall,  so  that  Palhser 
determined  to  finish  him. 

"Walking  up  therefore  to  within  thirty  paces  of 
him,  till  I  could  actually  see  his  eyes  rolling,  I  fired 
for  the  fourth  time  directly  at  the  region  of  the  heart, 
as  I  thought,  but  to  my  utter  amazement  up  went  his 
tail  and  down  went  his  head,  and  with  a  speed  that  I 
thought  him  little  capable  of,  he  was  upon  me  in  a 
twinkHng.  I  ran  hard  for  it  but  he  rapidly  overhauled 
me,  and  my  situation  was  becoming  anything  but 
pleasant.  Thinking  he  might,  Hke  our  own  bulls, 
shut  the  eyes  in  making  a  charge,  I  swerved  suddenly 
to  one  side  to  escape  the  shock,  but,  to  my  horror,  I 
failed  in  dodging  him,  for  he  bolted  round  quicker  than 
I  did,  and  aflPording  me  barely  time  to  protect  my 
stomach  with  the  stock  of  my  rifle,  and  to  turn  myself 
sideways  as  I  sustained  the  charge,  in  the  hopes  of 
getting  between  his  horns,  he  came  plump  upon  me 
with  a  shock  like  an  earthquake.  My  rifle-stock  was 
shivered  to  pieces  by  one  horn,  my  clothes  torn  by  the 
other;  I  flew  into  mid-air,  scattering  my  prairie-hens 
and  rabbits,  which  had  hitherto  hung  dangling  by 
leathern  thongs  from  my  belt,  in  all  directions,  till 
landing  at  last,  I  fell  unhurt  in  the  snow,  and  almost 
over  me — fortunately  not  quite — rolled  my  infuriated 
antagonist,  and  subsided  in  a  snowdrift.  I  was  luckily 
not  the  least  injured,  the  force  of  the  blow  having  been 


300  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

perfectly  deadened  by  the  enormous  mass  of  fur,  wool, 
and  hair,  that  clothed  his  shaggy  head-piece." 

It  was  here  that  PalHser  saw  his  first  elk,  which  he 
describes  with  great  detail,  and  whose  whistle  in  the 
breeding  season  he  declares  to  be  the  most  beautiful 
sound  in  all  the  animal  creation;  it  is  like  the  sound  of 
an  enormous  soft  flute,  uttered  in  a  most  coaxing  tone. 

In  his  hunting  in  the  buffalo  range,  where,  of  course, 
wolves  were  most  abundant,  Palliser,  as  might  be  sup- 
posed, saw  many  wolves.  He  speaks  with  enthusi- 
asm of  the  splendid  white  skins  which  he  secured  and 
brought  into  the  post.  In  several  cases  he  observes 
that  wolves  will  eagerly  devour  the  carcasses  of 
their  own  kind.  He  notes  also  that  they  sometimes 
sleep  so  soundly  that  a  man  may  walk  up  quite  close 
to  them.  This  is  something  that  happened  occasion- 
ally to  all  hunters.  A  hunting  companion  on  one  oc- 
casion walked  to  within  a  few  feet  of  a  sleeping  deer, 
and  commented  in  low  tones  to  his  companion  on  the 
soundness  of  its  slumbers. 

During  this  winter  at  Fort  Union  Palliser  purchased 
a  mongrel  hauHng,  or  travois,  dog,  sired  by  a  white 
wolf.  The  animal  was  particularly  shy  of  white  men, 
and  the  old  woman  who  sold  it  was  obliged  to  catch 
the  dog  twice  and  dehver  it  a  second  time.  Palliser 
wanted  the  dog  tc  haul  his  travois  on  a  journey  he  was 
about  to  make  with  two  voyageurs.  His  companions 
had  a  pair  of  mules  harnessed  to  a  sleigh.  He  notes  that 
the  mules,  of  course,  must  be  fed  on  cottonwood  bark, 


The  Solitary  Hunter  301 

since  the  grass  was  now  deeply  covered  with  snow. 
Palliser's  dog — Ishmah  by  name — like  his  master,  had 
to  depend  for  food  on  the  rifle.  Shortly  after  starting, 
Palliser  and  his  two  companions  separated,  he  and  the 
dog  to  go  up  the  river  to  Fort  Mackenzie  alone.  He 
travelled  chiefly  on  the  ice,  using  due  care  to  avoid 
the  air-holes  which  are  so  frequent  and  so  dangerous, 
and  never  leaving  the  river  for  any  great  distance. 
In  the  valley,  shelter  from  the  terrible  storms  of  the 
high  prairie  may  always  be  found.  Here  the  two  com- 
panions, who  by  this  time  had  come  thoroughly  to 
understand  each  other,  found  the  journey  comfortable 
and  very  pleasant. 

Ishmah's  friendly  relation  with  the  wolves  was 
sometimes  very  annoying,  for  often  he  ran  oflF  and 
played  with  the  young  wolves,  chasing  and  being 
chased  by  them  in  turn.  One  afternoon,  however, 
Ishmah  followed  a  wolf  off  on  the  prairie,  dragging  be- 
hind him  the  travois  loaded  with  everything  that  Pal- 
liser then  possessed.  .  He  followed,  shouting,  but  the 
dog  had  disappeared,  and  darkness  soon  obliged  the 
owner  to  turn  back  toward  the  river.  He  was  a  long 
way  from  timber  and  all  about  him  was  a  vast  barren 
waste  of  snow.  The  situation  was  anything  but  agree- 
able. "I  was  about  one  hundred  miles  from  any  known 
habitation,  and  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  from  my 
destination,  destitute  of  robe  and  blankets,  with  but 
very  little  powder  in  my  horn,  and  only  two  bullets 
in  my  pouch.     In  short,  I  was  in  a  pretty  considerable 


302  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

sort  of  a  'fix,'  and  had  nothing  for  it  but  to  make 
tracks  again  with  all  speed  for  the  timber.  Fortu- 
nately, I  found  my  way  back  to  the  river  without  much 
difficulty.  It  was  a  beautiful  moonUght  night,  which 
enabled  me  to  collect  some  fallen  wood,  and  having 
Hghted  a  fire,  I  seated  myself  beside  it,  and  began  to 
consider  the  probabiHties  of  my  ever  reaching  a  trading- 
post  ahve,  in  the  event  of  Ishmah  not  returning,  and 
how  I  should  economise  my  ammunition  and  increase 
my  rate  of  travelling  so  as  to  effect  this  object.  My 
prospects  were  dismal  enough,  nor  did  I  feel  cheered 
as  the  cold  north  breeze  froze  the  perspiration  which 
had  run  down  my  forehead  and  face,  and  formed 
icicles  in  my  beard  and  whiskers,  that  jingled  like 
bells  as  I  shook  my  head  in  dismissing  from  my  mind 
one  project  after  another.  At  last  resigning  myself 
to  my  fate  I  took  out  my  pipe,  determined  to  console 
myself  with  a  smoke,  when,  alas!  on  feeling  for  to- 
bacco I  found  that  was  gone  too.  This  was  the  cli- 
max of  my  misfortune!  I  looked  to  the  north  star 
and  calculated  by  the  position  of  the  Plough  that  it 
must  have  been  about  ten  o'clock,  the  time  at  which 
in  England  we  have  our  knees  under  the  mahogany, 
surrounded  by  friends,  discussing  a  bottle  of  the  best, 
and  awaiting  the  summons  to  tea  in  the  drawing-room. 
I  tried  to  see  a  faint  similarity  to  the  steam  of  the  tea- 
urn  in  the  smoke  from  the  snow-covered  wood  on  my 
dreary  fire,  and  endeavoured  to  trace  the  forms  of 
sweet  familiar  faces  in  the  embers,  till  I  almost  heard 


v?>^ 


ISHMAH,    THE    TRAVOIS    DOG 


The  Solitary  Hunter  303 

the  rusthng  of  fresh  white  crepe  dresses  round  me, 
when,  hark!  I  did  hear  a  rustle — it  approaches  nearer, 
nearer,  and  I  recognize  the  scraping  of  Ishmah's  trav- 
ail on  the  snow;  another  moment  and  the  panting 
rascal  was  by  my  side!  I  never  felt  so  relieved,  and 
laughed  out  loud  from  sheer  joy,  as  I  noticed  the  con- 
sciousness he  showed  by  his  various  cringing  move- 
ments of  having  behaved  very  badly.  I  was  too  well 
pleased,  however,  at  his  reappearance  to  beat  him, 
particularly  when  I  found  nothing  of  his  harness  and 
load  either  missing  or  injured  in  the  slightest  degree. 
Even  the  portion  of  meat  which  I  had  secured  from  the 
last  deer  I  shot  was  untouched;  so  that  I  had  nothing 
to  do  but  unpack  the  travail,  make  my  bed,  and  cook 
our  supper." 

Palhser  was  greatly  interested  in  the  Indians  that 
he  saw,  and  tried  to  understand  something  of  their 
ways  of  thought.  He  quotes  a  woman  whom  he  called 
to  look  through  a  telescope  as  saying:  "The  white  man 
know  of  this — here  she  moved  her  hand  as  if  writing 
— what  happens  very  far  off,  and  with  this — touching 
the  telescope — they  see  what  is  a  long  way  off;  now 
have  they  invented  anything  by  which  they  can  hear 
what  is  saying  a  long  way  off?"  This  seems  a  more 
or  less  reasonable  inquiry  for  the  telephone  of  modern 
times. 

It  was  at  White  River  Post  that  Palhser  met  an 
Indian  who  later  became  one  of  his  best  friends  and  of 
whom  he  had  much  to  say.     They  hunted  together  and 


304  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

on  their  first  hunt  killed  a  fine  wolf  which  made  them 
several  meals.  Palliser  was  unwilling  to  eat  this  food 
until  he  saw  the  relish  with  which  his  companion  was 
consuming  it;  but  having  made  the  first  step  and  learn- 
ing how  toothsome  it  was,  he  hesitated  no  longer. 

Hunting  was  constantly  kept  up  during  the  winter, 
for  life  depended  on  it.  The  weather  was,  as  usual, 
uncertain.  Palliser,  whose  stock  of  copper  caps  had 
run  low,  now  went  from  the  White  River  Post  to 
Larpenteur's  Post  on  Knife  River  with  a  party  which 
McKenzie  was  sending  to  Fort  Union.  He  wished  also 
to  visit  Mr.  Chardon,  who  was  in  command  at  the 
Minitaree  Fort.  The  party  set  out  on  a  fine  sunny 
morning,  and  the  heat  was  so  great  that  one  of  them — • 
Frederick — who  was  stout,  walked  in  his  shirt-sleeves 
puffing  and  blowing  like  a  grampus. 

At  the  Grand  Detour — the  Big  Bend — they  at- 
tempted to  make  the  cut-ofF,  which  is  only  fourteen 
miles  across,  instead  of  following  the  river-bank  for 
about  forty  miles.  Palliser  tried  to  persuade  his  com- 
panions to  go  the  long  way,  showing  them  what  a  bad 
position  they  would  be  in  if  caught  in  a  snow-storm  on 
the  prairie.  However,  the  Indians  beheved  that  spring 
had  come,  and  they  started  and  finally  camped  on  a 
little  stream  in  the  bed  of  which  the  snow  was  deeply 
drifted. 

"Night  was  then  coming  on,  and  it  began  to  rain 
slightly;  but  we  brightened  up  the  fire  again,  little 
knowing  what  was  in  store  for  us.     Shortly  after  dark 


The  Solitary  Hunter  305 

the  wind  veered  round  to  the  north-east,  accompanied 
by  snow,  and  at  last  it  blew  so  hard  as  to  oblige  us  to 
put  out  the  fire,  especially  on  account  of  the  gunpow- 
der. Owing  to  our  exposed  situation,  the  wind  merci- 
lessly drove  sparks,  and  even  lighted  brands,  whirling 
amongst  us,  turn  which  way  we  would,  as  the  eddies 
of  wind  drove  furiously  down  the  gullies  against  our 
little  encampment  from  all  points  of  the  compass. 
Old  Peekay  and  his  wife  collected  every  blanket  and 
skin  they  could  muster.  I  seized  my  bufFalo-robe  and 
blankets,  called  Ishmah  to  me,  round  whom  I  put  my 
arms,  and  hugging  him  close  to  my  breast,  shivered 
through  the  night. 

"Never  shall  I  forget  the  horrible  hours  of  suspense 
I  passed,  expecting  every  instant  the  feeling  of  sleep  to 
overpower  me,  knowing  the  fatal  consequences  and 
fearing  an  inability  to  resist  it.  I  found  my  faithful 
dog  an  invaluable  friend,  and  really  believe  he  was 
the  means  of  saving  my  life;  for  I  seemed  to  feel  the 
caloric,  as  it  issued  from  him,  preserve  my  body  from 
turning  into  stone.  Day  at  last  dawned,  and  the  wind 
abated.  We  contrived  to  move  to  a  less-exposed  situ- 
ation, where  we  lighted  a  roaring  fire,  and  warmed 
ourselves,  then  renewed  our  journey,  reaching  the  op- 
posite extremity  of  the  Grand  Detour  by  nightfall. 

*'Our  supper  that  night  was  a  very  scanty  one  of 
dried  buflfalo-meat,  the  last  of  the  provision  with  which 
Martin  had  supplied  us.  As  for  the  unfortunate  dogs 
that  accompanied  the  Indian  Peekay  and  his  squaw, 


3o6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

they,  poor  wretches  had  not  eaten  a  morsel  for  weeks; 
and  so  awful  an  array  of  starved  spectres  never  were 
seen. 

Fortunately,  the  next  day  a  bull  was  killed,  and,  won- 
derfully enough,  by  an  old  Indian  who  that  morning 
had  made  a  special  prayer  for  food.  The  Indian  was 
old  and  infirm  and  had  not  fired  a  gun  or  killed  game 
for  many  years,  but  certainly  in  this  case  his  prayer 
was  answered. 

Palliser  found  Mr.  Chardon  very  ill  with  a  violent 
attack  of  rheumatism,  but  extremely  glad  to  receive 
his  guest.  To  this  post  a  little  later  came  Boucharville, 
one  of  the  most  celebrated  hunters  and  trappers  of  the 
region.  He  was  a  French  Canadian  of  the  best  type, 
but  had  recently  suffered  great  misfortunes,  having 
lost  his  horses  through  the  severity  of  the  winter,  had 
his  traps  stolen  by  Indians,  barely  escaped  capture 
by  a  war-party,  and  finally  broken  the  sight  of  his  rifle. 

This  man  PalHser  engaged  to  make  a  trip  back  to 
Fort  Union  and  thence  on  horseback  up  the  Yellow- 
stone River,  intending  at  the  close  of  the  trip  to 
make  bull-hide  boats  and  transport  their  skins  and 
other  effects  back  to  Fort  Union  by  water.  For  this 
trip  two  additional  men  were  hired,  a  stout  Canadian 
named  Perey  and  a  half-breed  named  Paquenode. 
PalHser  and  Boucharville  were  to  do  the  hunting;  the 
other  two  were  to  keep  the  camp,  mind  the  horses,  and 
cook.  In  the  meantime  it  was  early  in  April  and  the 
wild-fowl   were   beginning  to  arrive  from  the  South. 


The  Solitary  Hunter  307 

Palliser  was  keen  to  shoot  some  but  had  no  shot.  He 
tried  to  manufacture  it  and  finally  did  so  by  beating 
out  lead  quite  flat,  cutting  it  into  little  bars,  and  again 
cutting  these  into  little  cubes  an  eighth  of  an  inch  each 
way.  These  were  put  in  a  small  metal  boiler  in  the 
kitchen  of  the  Fort  with  some  smooth  stones  and 
ashes  and  the  boiler  was  revolved  until  the  sharp  cor- 
ners were  worn  off  the  cubes  and  they  approached  the 
spherical.  With  this  imperfect  ammunition,  good  ex- 
ecution was  done,  for  of  course  the  birds  were  extremely 
abundant. 

m 

UP  THE  YELLOWSTONE  RIVER 

The  ice  broke  up  in  the  Missouri  on  the  17th  of  April, 
and  as  the  rising  water  forced  up  the  ice,  the  explosion 
was  like  distant  thunder.  For  over  thirty  hours  the 
river  rushed  by  in  a  furious  torrent,  carrying  enormous 
blocks  of  ice  and  roaring  with  a  splendid  sound  as  the 
masses  passed  along,  forcing  everything  before  them. 

Soon  after  this  the  party  started  for  Fort  Union. 
They  had  very  little  food;  some  dried  meat,  a  little 
bag  of  biscuits,  some  coffee,  and  a  quart  bottle  of 
molasses  to  sweeten  the  cofl'ee.  During  the  march 
they  had  opportunities  to  secure  eggs  from  the  nests 
of  the  water-fowl,  which  were  already  laying,  but  even 
with  this  help,  on  the  fifth  day  they  were  reduced  to 
one  biscuit  each. 


3o8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

"Early  next  morning  we  were  passing  along  the  side 
of  the  river,  very  hungr}^,  and  making  a  short  march 
with  the  intention  of  hunting  in  the  afternoon.  Perey 
carried  a  double-barrelled  gun  loaded  with  buck-shot, 
and  was  walking  near  the  pack-horse,  Ishmah  and  his 
travail  following  me,  when  we  were  astonished  by  the 
sudden  appearance  of  four  antelopes  climbing  up  the 
bank  close  at  hand.  Owing  to  the  steepness  of  the 
bank,  they  did  not  come  in  sight  of  us  until  they  had 
reached  the  summit;  the  moment  they  did  so  they 
wheeled  round,  but  not  before  Percy  fired  and  shot  one, 
which  rolled  down  the  bank  into  the  water,  and  was 
carried  down  the  stream.  Boucharville  and  I  tugged 
at  our  gun-covers;  his  he  could  not  remove  quickly 
enough;  I  tore  away  the  thong  of  mine — ^which  had  run 
into  a  knot — with  my  teeth,  and  cocked  my  rifle.  By 
this  time  the  other  three  antelopes  were  swimming 
away  in  the  broad  stream;  a  little  eddy  in  the  rapid  cur- 
rent turned  one  of  them  broadside  to  me;  I  fired,  hit- 
ting the  animal  between  wind  and  water,  behind  the 
shoulder, — its  head  drooped,  as,  floating  dead  on  the 
surface  of  the  water,  it  was  carried  down  the  stream 
after  its  companion.  Perey  then  performed  a  splen- 
did feat;  he  ran  down  the  side  of  the  river  far  enough 
to  enable  him  to  undress, — which  he  partly  did  in  run- 
ning,— ^jumped  into  the  half-frozen  water,  along  which 
the  blocks  of  ice  were  still  at  intervals  coursing,  stri- 
king out  boldly,  laid  his  hand  on  the  first  carcass,  then 
with  great  exertion  reached  the  second  as  it  floated  by. 


The  Solitary  Hunter  309 

and  brought  both  into  the  bank:  this  was  the  more 
fortunate,  for  half  a  minute  more  would  have  swept 
them  past  the  bend  into  the  rapids  beyond  where  the 
scene  occurred,  and  involved  not  only  the  loss  of  our 
game,  but  a  considerable  risk  to  this  brave  fellow. 

"The  two  antelopes  afforded  us  quite  a  sufficiency 
of  food  to  last  until  our  arrival  at  Fort  Union,  which 
we  reached  early  on  the  ninth  day  after  our  departure 
from  the  Minitarees." 

At  Fort  Union  food  was  scarce.  The  Indians  camped 
there  were  afraid  to  venture  away  from  the  post  to 
hunt,  and  immediately  about  the  post  white  hunters 
and  Indians  had  been  hunting  until  all  the  game  had 
been  killed  or  driven  away. 

It  did  not  take  long  to  get  together  such  supplies 
as  might  be  had  for  Palliser's  party — saddles,  bridles, 
ammunition,  a  couple  of  traps,  some  coffee,  sugar,  and 
salt.  It  was  necessary  to  cross  the  Missouri  River 
from  north  to  south  below  the  mouth  of  the  Yellow- 
stone. This  done,  a  few  miles  would  take  them  into 
a  land  of  plenty,  a  region  where  game  was  abundant; 
but  the  crossing  would  be  difficult.  The  river  was  high 
and  the  water  still  cold.  While  going  down  the  river 
they  were  fortunate  enough  to  see  deer  and  a  Httle 
later  some  elk,  of  which  they  secured  two.  Their 
abundance  now  made  them  think  of  the  starvation 
back  at  Fort  Union  and,  packing  up  their  surplus  meat, 
they  took  it  back  to  the  fort  to  exchange  for  certain 
much  needed  things.     Among  these  things  were  fish- 


3IO  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

hooks,  awls,  needles,  and,  most  important  of  all,  an 
excellent  four-oared  skifF. 

With  the  boat  they  succeeded  in  taking  their  horses 
and  party  across  the  Missouri,  and  this  done  they 
cached  their  precious  skiff,  burying  it  under  the  willows 
on  the  south  bank  of  the  Yellowstone,  close  to  its 
junction  with  the  Missouri. 

Almost  at  once  they  found  themselves  in  a  country 
of  abundant  game,  and  of  this  game  the  antelope 
chiefly  impressed  the  author.  Of  them  he  said :  ''These 
march  in  line,  sometimes  for  several  miles  together, 
and,  by  imitating  the  movements  of  their  leader,  ex- 
hibit the  most  striking  effects,  resembling  military  evo- 
lutions: they  simultaneously  whirl  round  their  white 
breasts  and  red  flanks,  like  the  'Right  face! — Left  face!' 
of  a  regiment  on  parade.  Obedient  to  the  motions  of 
their  leader,  when  he  stops,  all  stop:  he  stamps  and 
advances  a  step,  the  slight  similar  impulse  waves  all 
down  along  the  line;  he  then  gives  a  right  wheel,  and 
round  go  all  their  heads  for  one  last  look;  finallj^,  he 
gives  the  right  face  about,  and  away  'their  ranks  break 
up  like  clouds  before  a  Biscay  gale.'  Stately  wapiti 
wandered  on  the  plain,  feeding  not  far  from  the  wil- 
lows, to  whose  friendly  shelter  in  they  crashed  the 
moment  we  presented  ourselves  to  their  view.  And 
as  we  approached  steep  frowning  cliffs,  overhanging 
the  river,  I  saw,  for  the  first  time,  the  wild  sheep  or 
grosse  corne  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  balancing  them- 
selves, chamois-Uke,  on  the  tops  of  most  inaccessible 


The  Solitary  Hunter  311 

crags,  whither  they  had  rushed  on  first  catching  sight 
of  us."  He  repeats  the  ancient  fable  that  the  sheep 
horns  are  so  large  and  solid  as  to  enable  the  animal  to 
safely  fling  himself  on  his  head  from  considerable 
heights. 

He  made  a  hunt  for  this  new  game  and  succeeded  in 
kilHng  a  great  ram,  while  Boucharville  got  two  lambs, 
at  this  season  much  better  food  than  the  ram,  for  the 
sheep  in  early  spring,  feeding  largely  on  the  wild  leeks, 
often  tastes  of  this  so  strongly  as  to  be  almost  uneatable. 

In  this  land  of  plenty  the  party  had  a  pleasant,  easy 
time  and  lived  Hke  fighting-cocks.  PalHser's  clothing 
by  this  time  was  falHng  to  pieces,  and  he  was  obhged 
to  replace  it  by  a  coat  made  of  an  elk-skin,  and  trousers 
of  the  hides  of  blacktail  deer.  While  in  camp  here 
Indians  appeared  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  but  did 
not  discover  the  hunters.  However,  the  half-breed 
Paquenode,  who  appears  to  have  been  a  natural  cow- 
ard, was  frightened  nearly  to  death  and  even  tried 
to  seize  the  best  horse  in  the  party  in  order  to  run 
away. 

It  was  now  late  in  May,  and  PalHser  determined  to 
build  some  boats  and  return  to  Fort  Union,  and  then, 
taking  up  the  skiflf  buried  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yellow- 
stone, to  row  down  to  the  Minitaree  Fort  about  two 
hundred  and  eighty  miles.  The  skeletons  of  the  boats 
were  made  of  willows,  and  these  frames  covered,  with 
bull-hides.  After  the  canoes  were  loaded,  Palliser  and 
Boucharville  occupied   the  first  boat  and   towed   the 


312  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

second.  He  sent  the  other  men  back  to  Fort  Union 
with  the  horses. 

Late  one  evening,  as  they  were  floating  down  the 
river,  they  heard  voices,  and  presently  passed  an  In- 
dian camp  unobserved,  and  landing  a  little  below  it 
quietly  returned  to  the  vicinity  and  found  the  party 
to  consist  of  two  old  men,  an  old  woman,  and  ten 
young  people.  After  a  little  observation,  the  two  white 
men  walked  into  the  Crow  camp,  where  the  terrified 
children  ran  away  screaming.  The  fears  of  the  In- 
dians were  soon  allayed,  for  Boucharville  could  talk 
Crow,  and  the  relations  between  the  two  parties  became 
very  cordial. 

While  at  Fort  Union  Palliser  sent  his  horses  by  an 
Indian  friend  down  to  Fort  Berthold,  while  he,  with 
two  of  his  three  men,  raised  the  buried  skifF  and  started 
down  the  river.  On  their  way  an  attack  was  threat- 
ened by  a  war-party  of  Indians,  while  the  men  were 
out  looking  for  mountain  sheep.  Boucharville  and 
PalHser  retreated  to  the  camp  and  there  took  up  a 
position  in  the  timber,  and  the  Indians,  after  some 
threatening  demonstrations,  made  up  their  minds  that 
the  position  was  too  strong  to  be  attacked  and  moved 
off.  Later,  the  travellers  came  upon  two  white  trap- 
pers whose  arms  had  become  useless  and  who  were 
then  engaged  in  making  bows  and  arrows  with  which 
to  kill  game.  These  two,  Gardepee  and  Dauphin, 
were  competent  young  men  and  made  a  valuable  ad- 
dition to  the  party.     It  was  only  the  next  day  when 


The  Solitary  Hunter  313 

Palliser,  while  skinning  a  deer  that  he  had  killed,  was 
called  by  Dauphin,  and  as  he  ran  toward  him  and 
passed  over  a  hill  he  saw  a  bear  standing  on  his  hind  legs 
looking  about  him,  while  Dauphin,  hidden  behind  a 
rock,  was  industriously  snapping  his  useless  pistol  at 
the  bear.  When  he  saw  Palliser  the  bear  ran,  but  was 
brought  back  by  Dauphin,  who  imitated  the  call  of  a 
buffalo-calf,  so  that  PaUiser  shot  at  him,  but  only  hit 
him  in  the  flank. 

"The  bear  clawed  at  the  spot  where  the  ball  struck 
him,  and  charged  up  to  within  twenty  paces  of  us, 
while  I  was  reloading;  whereupon  Dauphin  snapped  his 
pistol  again  at  him  without  effect.  Fortunately  for 
us,  Bruin  was  only  a  two-year-old,  and  afraid  to  rush 
in,  though  large  enough  to  have  smashed  both  of  us, 
defenceless  as  we  were  at  the  moment,  and,  before  I 
could  get  on  my  percussion  cap,  bolted  over  the  brow 
of  the  hill.  I  was  still  so  thoroughly  blown  from  my 
run  over  the  rocky  ground,  that  I  gave  up  my  heavy 
rifle  to  Dauphin,  who  threw  down  the  useless  pistol, 
and  started  in  chase,  I  following  him.  He  soon  got  a 
shot  at  the  bear,  who  turned  round,  clawed  at  the 
wound,  gave  a  savage  growl,  and  ran  into  one  of  those 
little  clumps  which  always  mark  a  watercourse  in  the 
hilly  country.  I  took  the  rifle  again,  loaded,  and  pur- 
sued the  enemy  right  into  the  clump,  in  spite  of  the 
remonstrances  of  Dauphin,  and,  getting  a  sight  of  him 
first,  gave  him  a  finishing  shot  between  eye  and  ear. 
Although  he  was  but  a  young  bear,  only  in  his  third 


314  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

year,  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  we  could  drag 
him  out;  he  measured  five  feet  four  inches  from  rump 
to  the  muzzle,  and  his  claws  were  three  inches  and 
three-quarters  long.  Had  he  been  fully  grown,  and 
possessed  of  that  amount  of  courage  and  ferocity  with 
which  the  old  grisly  bears,  both  male  and  female,  are 
endowed,  it  would  certainly  have  fared  badly  with  us 
that  day.  However,  we  skinned  our  prize  with  great 
satisfaction;  and  I  was  exceedingly  pleased  with  the 
pluck  and  daring  of  my  companion,  who  had  been  twice 
charged  by  the  bear,  and  whose  pistol  had  twice 
snapped." 

A  day  or  two  later  Palliser  and  Dauphin  had  a  fine 
bulFalo-chase  which  led  them  a  long  way.  They 
started  in  pursuit  of  a  new-born  buffalo-calf,  and  this  is 
what  happened: 

"The  cow,  of  course,  went  off,  and  at  a  tolerable 
pace,  followed  by  the  calf,  at  an  astonishing  rate  for 
so  young  a  beast.  Dauphin  wanted  to  shoot  the 
mother,  in  order  not  only  to  shorten  the  race,  but  to 
increase  our  chance  of  rearing  the  calf,  by  cutting  off 
the  cow's  udder  when  dead;  but  that,  of  course,  I  would 
not  allow,  and  ended  the  discussion  by  knocking  up  the 
muzzle  of  the  rifle  which  he  was  using  with  the  barrel 
of  my  gun.  Then  bidding  him  follow  my  example,  I 
threw  down  my  gun  to  lighten  myself,  calling  on 
Boucharville  to  take  care  of  the  two;  and  drawing  our 
belts  a  hole  tighter,  we  dashed  off  again  up  hill  and 
down  dale,  till  at  last  we  stretched  away  right  out 


The  Solitary  Hunter  315 

along  the  prairie  for  five  or  six  miles.  By-and-by  the 
little  calf  began  to  shows  symptoms  of  failing,  and  the 
cow,  allowing  her  instinct  of  self-preservation  to  over- 
come her  maternal  attachment,  made  the  best  of  her 
way  off,  and  crossing  some  inequahties  in  the  ground, 
was  lost  to  the  sight  of  her  offspring.  The  little  fellow 
then  stopped;  whereupon  Dauphin,  who  possessed  a 
wonderful  facility  for  imitating  the  calls  of  animals, 
immediately  began  to  grunt  like  a  buffalo-cow,  and 
to  our  great  amusement  the  little  beast  turned  about, 
cocked  up  his  tail,  and  came  galloping  back  to  us.  We 
then  turned  about,  and  to  our  great  delight  it  frisked 
round  us  all  the  way  into  the  camp.  I  was  most  anx- 
ious to  get  it  to  the  fort  as  early  as  possible,  for  I  knew 
that  if  I  could  do  so  in  time,  I  might  by  chance  be  able 
to  rear  it  on  pounded  Indian  corn  and  lukewarm  water." 

The  next  day  another  calf  was  captured  out  of  a 
herd  which  was  crossing  the  river,  and  now  Palliser 
had  a  pair  which  he  hoped  he  might  succeed  in  getting 
to  Europe — as  later  he  did.  For  the  first  day  or  two  of 
their  captivity  these  little  calves  were  fed  on  strong 
broth,  but  there  were  domestic  cows  at  the  fort  and 
these  reared  the  calves. 

Shortly  after  Palliser's  arrival  at  the  fort,  Mr.  Char- 
don  died,  having  first  requested  Palliser  to  write  his 
will.  Boucharville,  when  sounded  on  the  question  of 
making  another  hunt,  declared  that  he  would  go  wher- 
ever Palliser  wished  to;  and  the  next  day  they  took 
the  horses  across  the  river  with   the  skiff,  intending 


3i6  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

to  hunt  up  the  Little  Missouri  River  and  to  look  for 
grizzly  bears  in  the  Turtle  Mountains.  On  the  fourth 
day  of  their  journey  from  Fort  Berthold  they  reached 
the  Turtle  Mountains.  Here  they  found  a  war  lodge, 
built  by  a  party  of  Minitarees  the  year  before,  and 
took  possession  of  it.  Boucharville,  an  experienced 
man,  did  not  like  to  remain  in  this  debatable  land, 
which  was  on  the  border  of  the  Sioux  and  Minitaree 
territory,  and  began  at  once  to  figure  on  when  they 
could  get  away. 

Here  bear,  antelope,  elk,  and  sheep  were  extremely 
abundant  and  food  was  always  plentiful.  One  day 
while  Palliser  was  beginning  to  skin  an  elk,  just  killed, 
Boucharville,  who  was  about  to  clean  his  gun,  was 
charged  by  a  grizzly,  and  escaped  her  by  dashing  into 
a  clump  of  rose-bushes.  The  bear,  which  had  cubs  with 
her,  charged  after  Palliser,  who  was  running  toward 
his  horse,  which  he  feared  would  be  lost  if  it  smelt  the 
bear.  When  he  reached  the  horse  he  stopped  and 
faced  the  bear,  which  also  stopped  and  stood  up,  and 
then  turned  and  ran.  PalHser  shot  at  the  bear,  but 
hit  her  too  far  back.  She  stopped  to  bite  at  her  wound 
and  gave  him  time  to  load  again.  Just  as  he  was  put- 
ting a  copper  cap  on  the  nipple  the  bear  rose  on  her 
hind  legs,  and  he  sent  a  bullet  through  her  heart. 
PalHser  was  very  lucky  in  that  his  horse  did  not  pull 
back  or  shy,  and  that  there  was  nothing  to  disturb  his 
aim.  When  the  horse  was  brought  to  the  bear  and  the 
skin  put  upon  him,  he  paid  no  attention  and  showed 


The  Solitary  Hunter  317 


no  signs  of  fear,  a  very  unusual  thing,  for  horses  are 
commonly  very  much  afraid  even  of  bear-skins. 

After  they  reached  camp  Dauphin  started  out  to 
capture  one  of  the  young  bears,  but  as  Palliser  thought 
the  chances  of  finding  them  were  very  sHght  he  did  not 
go  with  him,  but  afterward  regretted  this.  Dauphin 
killed  one  of  the  little  bears  and  tried  to  take  the  other 
ahve,  but  it  fought  fiercely,  tearing  his  clothes  and  cut- 
ting him  with  its  claws.  Dauphin  had  armed  himself 
with  a  stout  club,  but,  even  so,  had  done  no  more  than 
make  a  draw  of  the  battle.  They  now  started  back 
toward  the  Little  Missouri  and  on  the  way  saw  a  bear, 
which,  to  Palliser's  very  great  disgust,  was  lost  by  the 
eagerness  of  Dauphin. 

At  the  Little  Missouri  Palliser  went  duck-shooting 
with  his  smooth-bore  gun,  but  coming  on  the  old  car- 
cass of  a  bull  found  all  about  it  large  bear  tracks,  some 
of  which  looked  very  fresh.  He  drew  his  charges  of 
shot  and  rammed  down  a  couple  of  balls,  and  followed 
the  tracks  from  the  prairie  until  at  last  he  discovered 
a  large  bear  walking  slowly  along.  *'I  approached  as 
near  as  I  could  without  his  perceiving  me,  and,  lying 
down,  tried  Dauphin's  plan  of  imitating  the  lowing  of 
a  bufFalo-calf.  On  hearing  the  sounds,  he  rose  up,  dis- 
playing such  gigantic  proportions  as  almost  made  my 
heart  fail  me;  I  croaked  again,  when,  perceiving  me, 
he  came  cantering  slowly  up.  I  felt  that  I  was  in  for 
it,  and  that  escape  was  impossible,  even  had  I  declined 
the  combat;  so  cocking  both  barrels  of  my  Trulock,  I 


3i8  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

remained  kneeling  until  he  approached  very  near,  when 
I  suddenly  stood  up,  upon  which  the  bear,  with  an 
indolent  roaring  grunt,  raised  himself  once  more  upon 
his  hind-legs,  and  just  at  the  moment  when  he  was  bal- 
ancing himself  previously  to  springing  on  me,  I  fired, 
aiming  close  under  his  chin:  the  ball  passing  through 
his  throat,  broke  the  vertebrae  of  the  neck,  and  down  he 
tumbled,  floundering  hke  a  great  fish  out  of  water,  till 
at  length  he  reluctantly  expired,  I  drew  a  long  breath 
as  I  uncocked  my  left  barrel,  feeling  right  glad  at 
the  successful  issue  of  the  combat.  I  walked  round 
and  round  my  huge  prize,  surveying  his  proportions 
with  great  dehght;  but  as  it  came  on  to  rain,  I  was 
obhged  to  lose  no  time  in  skinning  him.  I  got  soaked 
through  before  I  succeeded  in  removing  his  tremen- 
dous hide,  and  then  found  it  too  heavy  for  me  to  take 
away;  so  I  was  obhged  to  return  to  camp  without  the 
trophy  of  my  conquest.  It  was  dark  when  I  arrived. 
Boucharville  and  Dauphin  had  built  a  most  comfort- 
able little  hut  of  logs  and  bark,  and  having  laid  down 
the  skins  and  spread  our  beds  inside,  with  the  saddles  at 
our  heads  for  pillows,  and  a  good  roaring  fire  outside 
at  our  feet,  we  fell  heartily  to  our  supper  of  elk  meat 
and  coffee. 

"At  daybreak  next  morning  I  repaired  on  horseback 
to  the  scene  of  my  conflict  with  the  bear,  and  found,  to 
my  great  delight,  on  my  arrival  at  the  spot,  that  neither 
the  skin  nor  the  carcass  of  the  bear  had  been  touched 
by  the  wolves.     This  fact  confirmed  to  me  the  testi- 


The  Solitary  Hunter  319 

mony  of  the  hunters  and  trappers  of  these  parts,  as 
to  the  great  awe  in  which  the  grisly  bear  is  held  by  the 
wolves  and  lesser  animals  of  prey.  If  a  bear  kills  an 
animal,  or  finds  a  dead  carcass  on  the  prairie,  he  appro- 
priates it;  and  though  many  a  hungry  prowler  passing 
by  may  look  wistfully  at  the  choice  morsel,  it  is  like 
the  eastern  monarch's  share,.' taboo';  and  even  when  the 
mountain  monarch  is  absent,  the  print  of  his  paw  is  a 
seal  sufficient  for  its  security.  It  cost  me  considerable 
exertion  to  place  the  reeking  hide  on  my  saddle;  but 
I  succeeded  at  last,  and  climbing  on  the  top  of  it,  lighted 
my  pipe  and  rode  back  into  camp.  Riding  along,  to- 
wards noon  we  descried  another  bear,  a  lean,  hungry- 
looking  monster,  prowling  about  searching  for  pommes 
blanches i  and,  to  judge  from  his  appearance,  Hkely  to 
afford  us  a  pretty  severe  fight.  In  approaching  him, 
we  did  not  take  any  precaution  to  avoid  giving  him  our 
wind,  concluding,  from  my  former  experience,  that  he 
would  not  decHne  the  combat;  but  in  this  instance  I 
was  mistaken,  for  rushing  away  down  a  ravine,  he  was 
soon  lost  to  our  view.  This  result,  although  it  disap- 
pointed me  at  the  time,  yet  gave  me  a  further  insight 
into  the  disposition  and  habits  of  the  animal,  and  agreed 
with  the  accounts  I  had  heard  from  many  hunters  and 
trappers  with  whom  I  had  previously  conversed  on  the 
subject;  namely,  that  a  grisly  bear  will,  in  most  in- 
stances, run  away  from  a  man  on  getting  his  wind, 
unless  previously  wounded,  or  under  such  circum- 
stances as  to  make  him  think  that  he  cannot  escape. 


320  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Old  Mr.  Kipp,  of  Fort  Union,  told  me  that  once,  when 
on  one  of  his  numerous  journeys  from  the  States,  he 
was  in  the  Indian  country,  and  had  gone  out  of  camp 
with  his  double-barrelled  gun  to  look  for  ducks;  he 
was  seen  from  a  distance  by  a  grisly  bear,  who  came 
cantering  towards  him.  The  day  was  fine,  and  the 
old  gentleman  did  not  know  which  way  the  wind  blew, 
but  had  sufficient  presence  of  mind  to  pluck  off  some 
of  the  woolly  material  of  which  his  blue  blanket  capote 
was  composed,  and  throw  it  into  the  air;  and  marking 
the  direction  of  the  current  ran  a  little  distance  round, 
till  he  got  full  in  the  line  of  it,  and  then  stood  bolt 
upright  facing  Bruin,  who  rose  on  his  hind-legs  for  a 
moment,  surveying  the  tough  old  man,  and  then  shuffled 
off,  shaking  his  head  as  if  he  considered  him  meat 
rather  too  savoury  for  his  palate." 

There  were  other  adventures  with  grizzly  bears  and 
Palliser  recounts  a  story  told  by  Boucharville  about  a 
bear  which  sprang  upon  the  leading  bull  of  a  herd  of 
buffalo  and  killed  it.  Other  accounts  have  been  given 
of  such  battles  where  the  bull  killed  the  bear. 

The  time  for  Palliser's  return  was  now  at  hand,  and 
loading  his  skins  into  boats  made  of  buffalo-hide  he 
floated  down  the  river  to  the  Minitaree  post,  where 
James  Dawson  the  old  fur  trader  was  now  in  charge. 
A  little  later,  boarding  the   Fur  Company's  steamer 

Martha,"  he  took  his  way  with  all  his  trophies  down 
the  river  and  at  last  reached  St.  Louis,  and  his  prairie 
hunt  was  over. 


The  Solitary  Hunter  321 

The  publication  of  his  book,  The  Solitary  Hunter y  had 
unexpected  results.  Some  time  after  its  appearance, 
the  British  Colonial  Office  chose  Palliser  to  command 
an  expedition  to  explore  British  North  America  and 
to  topographically  determine  the  boundary  line  be- 
tween the  British  possessions  and  the  United  States, 
from  Lake  Superior  west  to  the  Cascade  Range.  This 
expedition  was  in  the  field  for  three  years  or  more. 
Papers  reporting  its  progress  were  published  by  Parlia- 
ment in  1859,  and  finally,  about  1863,  the  British  Gov- 
ernment pubhshed  Palliser's  detailed  journal,  contain- 
ing reports  on  the  geography,  agricultural  resources, 
and  commercial  possibilities  of  far  western  America. 
Later  Palliser  was  a  magistrate  for  County  Waterford 
and,  for  a  time,  served  as  high  sheriff  of  that  county. 


THE  COUNCIL  AT  FORT  BENTON 


THE  COUNCIL  AT  FORT  BENTON 

WILLIAM  T.  HAMILTON,  who  died  in  1908, 
was  perhaps  the  very  last  survivor  of  that 
old-time  race  of  trappers  whose  courage, 
skill,  and  endurance  led  to  the  discovery,  exploration, 
and  settlement  of  that  vast  territory  which  we  now  call 
the  Empire  of  the  West.  He  left  St.  Louis  in  1842 
with  a  company  of  free  trappers  led  by  Bill  Williams 
— famous  in  those  days — and  for  many  years  thereafter 
led  the  wild,  adventurous,  and  independent  life  of  the 
mountain  man.  With  the  coming  of  the  railroads  and 
the  settlement  of  the  country  that  life  ended,  but  in 
1907,  at  the  age  of  eighty-five,  he  still  lived  among 
the  mountains  of  Montana,  and  still  made  his  annual 
trapping  trips,  keeping  up  the  habits  that  he  had  prac- 
tised for  sixty-five  years. 

"Uncle"  Bill  Hamilton,  as  he  was  long  and  affec- 
tionately known,  was  one  of  Montana's  first  citizens, 
and  the  residents  of  that  State  were  proud  of  his  long 
experience,  his  wide  knowledge  of  the  life  of  the  early 
days,  and  his  extraordinary  skill  as  a  sign  talker.  A 
good  mountain  man  is,  of  course,  a  keen  observer,  but 
Hamilton  possessed  also  a  retentive  memory  which 
enabled  him  in  his  later  years  to  make  valuable  contri- 

32s 


326  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

butlons  to  the  history  of  the  early  West,  which  have 
been  recorded  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Montana  His- 
torical Society,  in  his  book  My  Sixty  Years  on  the 
Plains,  published  in  1905,  and  in  the  present  account, 
which  was  published  in  Forest  and  Stream  in  the  spring 
of  1907. 

It  was  in  the  year  1855  that  Governor  I.  I.  Stephens, 
called  by  the  Indians  "The  Short  Man,"  made,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Judith  River,  the  first  treaty  with  the 
Indians  of  northern  Montana.  The  object  of  this 
treaty  was  to  bring  about  a  general  peace  among  the 
different  tribes,  which  had  long  been  at  war  with  one 
another.  Like  many  efforts  of  this  kind,  the  treaty 
had  no  lasting  effect. 

This  story  deals  with  another  attempt  to  put  an  end 
to  intertribal  wars  made  ten  years  later,  in  1865,  by 
General  Francis  Meagher  and  other  commissioners. 
WilHam  T.  Hamilton  was  sent  out  to  try  to  induce  the 
various  tribes  to  come  into  Fort  Benton  and  attend 
this  council.  Some  of  the  tribes  were  brought  in  and 
a  treaty  was  made,  but  it  did  not  last  long.  The  ac- 
count which  follows  is  crowded  with  the  lore  of  the 
plains — information  as  to  the  way  in  which  in  old  times 
people  travelled  through  a  hostile  country.  Those 
who  read  it  with  attention,  will  learn  much  about 
the  ways  of  Indians  and  the  ways  of  those  who  fought 
Indians. 

This  is  Bill  Hamilton's  story  of  the  Council  at  Fort 
Benton: 


WILLIAM   T.    HAMILTON 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  327 

The  Territory  of  Montana  was  organized  in  1864. 
Green  Clay  Smith  was  appointed  its  first  governor, 
and  General  Francis  Meagher  became  acting  governor 
with  supervision  over  all  Indians. 

From  1863  to  1865  a  chronic  state  of  warfare  existed 
between  all  the  Indian  tribes  in  the  Territory.  In  the 
course  of  this  warfare,  miners  and  freighters  had  sus- 
tained serious  losses  in  stock,  and  many  miners  and 
cattle-herders  had  been  killed  by  the  Indians.  There 
was  no  protection  for  life  and  property.  At  the  mouth 
of  the  Judith  River,  fifty  miles  east  of  Benton,  was  sta- 
tioned one  company  of  soldiers,  but  they  were  infantry 
and  could  render  no  protection  against  mounted  In- 
dians. 

In  1864  I  sold  my  place  at  Missoula,  and  moved  to 
Benton — the  head  of  navigation  for  the  Missouri 
River  steam-boats,  which  carried  all  the  supplies  of 
every  description  needed  by  the  rapidly  increasing 
population,  which  was  rushing  into  the  Territory  at- 
tracted by  fabulous  reports  which  were  constantly  being 
circulated  of  the  discovery  of  rich  placer  and  quartz 
mines. 

When  I  arrived  at  Benton  it  was  almost  impossible 
to  get  anything  to  eat,  and  I  determined  that  I  would 
start  a  hotel.  I  built  a  log  house,  hired  a  cook,  and  a 
negro  for  a  waiter,  gave  fifty  dollars  for  an  old  stove, 
bought  and  borrowed  all  the  cups,  knives,  forks,  and 
tin  plates  that  I  could  get  from  the  Fur  Company  em- 
ployees, and  opened  my  hotel  at  one  dollar  per  meal. 


328  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

I  bought  some  beef  steers  and  slaughtered  one  on  the 
river  bank.  Two  whiskey  barrels  on  end,  with  three 
slabs  on  them,  set  up  by  the  hotel,  formed  the  counter 
of  a  butcher  shop,  the  first  one  opened  in  Chouteau 
County,  Montana  Territory.  I  sold  beef  at  twenty 
cents  and  twenty-five  cents  per  pound,  disposing  of 
from  one  to  five  beeves  daily  to  boats  and  freighters. 
Presently  I  was  obUged  to  hire  a  butcher  and  a  herder. 

In  the  spring  of  1865  the  governor  appointed  me 
sheriff  of  Chouteau  County,  which  was  about  as  large  as 
the  State  of  New  York.  I  was  also  appointed  deputy 
United  States  marshal.  At  this  time  the  population 
was  a  mixed  and  motley  combination.  There  were 
some  trappers  and  free  traders,  good  men;  but  the  re- 
mainder were  Fur  Company  employees,  in  all  about 
forty-five  men.  There  were  some  half-breeds,  but  none 
of  them  could  be  trusted  except  one,  Joe  Kipp.  The 
Northwest  Fur  Company  had  bought  out  the  old  Fur 
Company  and  had  put  I.  G.  Baker  in  charge.  Carroll 
and  Steele,  former  clerks  of  the  old  company,  had 
opened  a  store  in  Benton,  and  T.  C.  Power  afterward 
opened  one. 

Through  the  Territorial  delegate,  the  United  States 
Government  was  asked  to  protect  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Territory  against  Indians,  and  the  following 
occurrences  were  a  part  of  the  effort  to  secure  such 
protection.  A  commission  of  three  persons  was  ap- 
pointed to  consider  this  subject.  It  consisted  of  Acting 
Governor  Meagher,  Judge  Munson,  and  E.  W.  Car- 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  329 

penter.  They  arrived  at  Benton  early  in  September, 
and  after  holding  a  council  determined  that  the  Pie- 
gans,  Bloods,  Blackfeet,  Gros  Ventres,  and  Crow  In- 
dians must  be  brought  into  Benton  and  there  induced 
to  make  a  permanent  and  lasting  peace.  Runners  were 
sent  out  inviting  the  Blackfeet  tribes  to  come  in,  but 
no  one  could  be  found  who  would  undertake  to  hunt 
up  and  bring  in  the  Crows  and  Gros  Ventres. 

At  this  season  the  country  between  the  Missouri 
and  Yellowstone  Rivers  was  usually  overrun  by  war 
parties  of  Sioux,  Cheyennes,  Arapahoes,  and  Blackfeet, 
making  travel  exceedingly  dangerous  for  any  one,  even 
for  an  experienced  prairie  man. 

While  they  were  trying  to  find  a  man  to  make  this 
trip,  some  one  suggested  to  the  commissioners  that  I 
was  accustomed  to  travelling  anywhere,  and  they  might 
get  me.  They  sent,  asking  me  to  call  on  them  at  the 
agency,  which  was  then  at  Benton,  and  when  I  came, 
the  governor  said:  "Sheriff,  we  want  a  man  to  go  and 
get  the  Crow  and  Gros  Ventres  Indians  to  come  to 
Benton  and  meet  us  in  council.  Will  you  go  and  get 
them  for  us?  We  are  informed  that  you  can  and  do 
travel  anywhere  on  the  plains." 

"Yes,  I  do,"  I  answered,  "if  I  have  special  business 
of  my  own  to  attend  to." 

The  governor  said:  "The  government  is  anxious  to 
bring  about  a  general  peace  between  these  warring 
tribes,  and  also  to  put  an  end  to  hostilities  against  the 
white  people.     In  a  few  days  a  steamboat  load  of  goods 


330  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

will  arrive,  to  be  given  as  presents  to  all  Indians  who 
meet  us  in  council.  We  want  you  to  go  and  bring  in 
these  tribes." 

"But,"  I  said  to  him,  "how  can  I  go?  I  have  to 
look  after  my  eating  house,  the  butcher  shop,  the  du- 
ties of  sheriff,  and  of  marshal.  I  have  two  prisoners  on 
hand  and  no  jail  in  which  to  confine  them." 

But  they  kept  on  talking  and  persuading  until  I 
saw  that,  as  the  Western  phrase  has  it,  they  were  going 
to  get  me  into  a  jack  pot.  To  cut  it  short,  they  pre- 
vailed on  me  to  undertake  the  mission  to  bring  in  the 
two  tribes. 

I  appointed  a  deputy  to  look  after  my  business,  and 
informed  the  commissioners  that  I  must  have  a  certain 
Piegan  Indian  as  companion,  and  asked  them  to  send 
a  runner  to  Little  Dog,  the  chief,  with  a  paper,  asking 
him  to  send  Eagle  Eye  to  Benton  as  soon  as  possible. 
In  two  days  Eagle  Eye  was  there.  I  had  christened 
him  Jack.  I  had  once  saved  his  life.  He  was  a  cool 
and  brave  man,  and  would  die  for  me  if  called  on  to 
do  so.     He  had  been  with  me  on  two  former  trips. 

I  was  at  the  agency  when  Jack  arrived,  and  when  I 
told  him  what  was  wanted  of  him,  he  gave  a  warwhoop 
that  startled  the  commissioners.  I  owned  two  of  the 
fastest  horses  in  the  country,  and  got  two  good  horses 
for  Jack.  I  selected  one  pack-horse,  a  fast  one  which 
would  follow  like  a  dog.  I  took  some  tobacco  and 
some  food  with  which  to  feast  the  Indians,  calculating 
to  put  about  seventy-five  pounds  on  the  pack-horse. 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  331 

Brief  digression  may  be  interesting,  and  perhaps  use- 
fuh  I  had  a  pair  of  Spanish  panniers  made  of  canvas 
or  leather  fastened  together  and  hung  over  the  pack- 
saddle.  At  the  bottom  of  the  ofF-side  pannier  was  a 
four-inch  strap  ending  in  a  buckle.  On  the  nigh-side 
pannier  a  strap  was  fastened  at  the  bottom,  and  these 
straps  were  buckled  together  under  the  horse's  belly. 
This  held  both  panniers  down  close  to  the  horse's  body. 
The  panniers  can  be  made  of  any  size,  according  to  the 
amount  one  wishes  to  pack.  Mine  would  carry  one 
hundred  pounds  of  assorted  goods.  In  case  of  emer- 
gency, the  animal  being  saddled,  you  can  place  the  pan- 
niers on  the  saddle,  cinch,  mount,  and  be  off  in  twenty 
seconds. 

On  my  best  horse  I  kept  day  and  night  an  Indian 
pad-saddle  as  a  substitute  for  a  riding-saddle.  Its 
weight  was  ten  pounds;  the  horse  wore  a  hackamore  for 
a  bridle,  and  the  reins  were  tied  to  the  horse's  mane. 
This  was  a  useful  precaution  in  case  of  being  surprised 
or  jumped  by  Indians  and  not  having  time  to  saddle. 
Such  an  occurrence  may  take  place  notwithstanding  all 
your  alertness.  My  other  horse  I  rode  with  a  Cali- 
fornia saddle.  Jack  was  similarly  fitted  out,  except  that 
he  had  two  Indian  pads.  I  had  bought  from  Judge  E. 
R.  Munson  the  first  Henry  rifle  that  ever  came  into  the 
Territory,  paying  him  one  hundred  and  six  dollars  in 
gold-dust.  I  had  two  .45  calibre  Colt's  revolvers. 
Jack  had  a  Sharp's  rifle,  using  paper  caps  that  I  had 
given  to  him  some   time   before.     I  got  him  two  .45 


332  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

calibre  Remington  revolvers.  He  had  also  his  bow  and 
arrows. 

On  the  second  day  after  Jack's  arrival  we  packed 
up  at  the  agency,  a  number  of  persons  being  present. 
The  commissioners  could  not  understand  why  we  were 
so  heavily  armed,  since  we  were  going  on  a  peaceful 
message  for  the  government.  Their  questions  and 
manifest  ignorance  of  Indians  brought  a  smile  to  the 
faces  of  many  of  those  present,  as  if  a  war  party  would 
care  what  business  we  were  engaged  in,  or,  if  they  did 
care,  would  stop  to  ask.  After  a  while  we  shook  hands 
with  our  friends  and  started.  Many  of  them  said, 
"Look  out.  Bill,  this  is  likely  to  be  your  last  trip,"  but 
I  felt  that,  being  armed  as  we  were,  no  small  party 
would  get  the  "age"  on  us. 

Jack  had  told  me  that  a  Piegan  war  party  which  had 
returned  a  few  days  before  had  informed  him  that  the 
Crows  had  been  camped  at  Medicine  Springs  between 
the  Moccasin  Mountains,  that  being  about  ninety  miles 
from  Benton  as  the  crow  flies,  but  had  moved  their 
village  some  days  before.  He  also  told  me  there  were 
three  Blackfeet  war  parties  out  after  Crows  and  Gros 
Ventres.  We  should  have  to  look  out  for  them.  With 
this  information  as  to  where  to  pick  up  the  trail,  it 
would  be  easy  for  us  to  locate  the  Crow  village,  unless 
we  met  hostile  war  parties.  For  about  half  the  dis- 
tance to  the  Medicine  Springs  the  country  is  very 
broken. 

We  forded  the  Missouri  River  and  struck  across  a 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  333 

rolling  country  to  Arrow  Creek,  thirty  miles  from  Ben- 
ton, and  reached  the  creek  about  sixteen  miles  east  of 
Rattling  Buttes.  These  buttes,  at  the  east  end  of  the 
Highwood  Mountains,  were  in  a  dangerous  country. 
It  was  a  famous  resort  for  war  parties,  and  game  of 
all  kinds  was  abundant.  Here  we  stood  guard  turn 
about.  Because  you  see  no  Indians  nor  signs  of  any, 
it  does  not  follow  that  none  are  in  the  neighborhood. 
In  a  hostile  or  semi-hostile  country  never  trust  to  ap- 
pearances, but  be  as  much  on  the  alert  as  if  you  knew 
the  enemy  was  in  close  proximity.  Have  everything 
ready  for  action  either  to  defend  your  position  or  to 
retreat. 

The  next  morning  before  daylight  we  built  a  fire  out 
of  dry  willows  and  made  coffee.  Our  bill  of  fare  was 
pemican  and  crackers.  We  had  discovered  a  few 
buffalo  feeding  over  a  ridge  near  camp,  and  I  asked 
Jack  to  try  to  get  one  with  an  arrow.  It  was  too  dan- 
gerous to  use  a  gun  to  kill  this  game.  If  any  Indians 
were  within  hearing,  the  report  would  have  brought 
them  to  us  in  force,  and  might  have  caused  us  annoy- 
ance. Many  a  party  has  come  to  grief  from  the  lack 
of  such  knowledge.  Jack  went  off,  and  in  a  short  time 
returned  with  the  tongue,  the  hump,  and  one  depouille^ 
which  we  used  as  a  substitute  for  bread.  By  this  time 
I  had  the  stock  ready  to  start. 

After  viewing  the  surrounding  country  from  a  high 
knoll  and  observing  no  signs  of  danger,  we  started. 
We  had  to  pass  over  a  broken  country  between  Arrow 


334  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Creek  and  Wolf  Creek,  a  distance  of  some  eighteen 
miles.  As  we  passed  over  a  high  ridge  far  over  to  our 
right,  perhaps  seven  miles,  we  discovered  about  one 
hundred  buffalo  on  a  stampede.  We  left  the  ridge  and 
approached  a  hill  that  had  sonje  trees  upon  it,  and  from 
this  point  looked  over  the  country  in  order  to  learn,  if 
possible,  what  had  caused  the  buffalo  to  "raise,"  for 
buffalo  seldom  stampede  unless  they  are  frightened  by 
somebody  in  the  vicinitj-.  We  discovered  nothing,  and 
at  length  went  on  to  Wolf  Creek,  where,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  stream,  we  came  across  foot-tracks  where 
seven  men  had  been  walking.  Jack  declared  that  they 
were  Blackfeet.  They  had  passed  along  that  morning. 
Evidently  they  had  tried  to  find  the  Crow  village,  but 
had  missed  it.  I  told  Jack  that  this  war  party  would 
go  to  Deep  Creek,  and  would  run  off  some  miners' 
horses,  and  would  also  take  in  a  miner  if  the  opportu- 
nity offered.  Afterward  we  learned  that  some  war 
party  about  this  time  did  kill  a  miner  and  run  off  a 
number  of  horses. 

We  passed  on,  travelling  in  draws  and  hollows  as 
much  as  possible,  until  we  reached  Willow  Creek. 
The  antelope  and  a  few  buffalo  were  feeding  quietly; 
a  sure  sign  that  no  Indians  were  about,  and  that  there 
had  been  none  before  our  arrival.  The  grass  was  good, 
and  we  camped  and  cooked  our  tongue,  enjoying  a 
feast  fit  for  the  gods  of  old,  as  mountain  men  have  it. 

We  did  not  travel  fast  or  far,  but  kept  our  horses  in 
prime  condition,  so  that,  if  in  case  of  any  emergency 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  335 

we  were  forced  to  make  fast  time,  we  could  get  away 
and  keep  from  being  made  bald-headed. 

We  were  not  disturbed  during  the  night,  and  the 
next  morning  were  off  at  daylight.  The  game  still  fed 
about  us  undisturbed.  We  crossed  Plum  Creek  (Judith 
River)  and  discovered  several  pony  tracks  some  days 
old.     We  concluded  that  the  riders  were  Crows. 

At  length  we  got  to  the  Medicine  Springs  between 
the  Moccasin  Mountains.  The  Crow  village  had  been 
there,  but  had  gone.  We  followed  their  trail  until 
dark,  and  camped  at  the  east  end  of  the  Judith  Moun- 
tains. The  next  morning  Jack  went  to  the  top  of  a 
high  butte,  called  Black  Butte,  and  swept  the  surround- 
ing prairie  with  a  powerful  field-glass,  but  discovered  no 
sign  of  village  smokes.  Now  began  the  dangerous  part 
of  our  trip.  A  comparatively  open  country  lay  before 
us.  To  follow  the  lodge-pole  trail  was  dangerous,  yet 
that  was  our  only  means  of  finding  the  Crow  village. 
All  Indian  war  parties  are  likely  to  follow  the  village 
trail  of  those  they  are  after.  Jack  said  that  there  were 
two  more  Blackfeet  war  parties  out  besides  the  one 
that  had  gone  up  Wolf  Creek,  but  these  parties  we  did 
not  fear,  because  they  were  on  foot.  The  result  might 
be  different  if  we  came  in  contact  with  either  Sioux, 
Cheyennes,  or  Arapahoes,  who  always  go  to  war 
mounted,  and  in  force.  We  could  easily  stand  ofF 
eight  or  twelve  Indians,  but  fifty  or  one  hundred  is  a 
different  matter.  Nevertheless,  we  had  to  take  the 
risk. 


33^  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

Before  starting  we  put  everything  in  prime  order. 
If  some  persons  had  been  present  I  think  they  would 
have  beheved  that  we  were  preparing  for  a  desperate 
fight  or  a  desperate  retreat. 

From  our  camp  in  the  Judith  Mountains  the  big 
bend  of  the  Musselshell  River  and  the  Bull  Mountains 
were  fifty  miles  to  the  southeast.  There  we  expected 
to  find  the  Crow  village,  unless  prevented  by  hostile 
war  parties. 

We  travelled  on  at  a  five-mile  gait,  carefully  watching 
the  trail  for  fresh  tracks,  either  of  men  or  horses.  If 
either  should  be  discovered,  we  would  have  to  act  ac- 
cording to  circumstances.  In  front  of  us  and  on  either 
flank  a  few  scattered  buffalo  and  antelope  were  feeding 
quietly. 

About  2  P.M.  we  reached  Flat  Willow  Creek, just 
above  where  Box  Elder  Creek  flows  into  it.  Jack 
mounted  his  best  horse  and  made  a  circle  three-quar- 
ters of  a  mile  in  diameter,  to  see  if  he  could  discover 
any  Indian  signs.  I  went  to  the  crest  of  a  high  ridge, 
and  with  my  glasses  thoroughly  swept  the  surrounding 
country  without  seeing  any  sign  of  a  village  smoke, 
then  returned  to  where  I  had  left  the  horses.  When 
Jack  returned  I  could  see  by  his  look  that  he  had  dis- 
covered something  that  troubled  him.  When  I  asked 
him  what  he  had  found  he  pointed  up  the  creek  and 
said:  South  of  that  butte  are  the  pony  tracks  of  a 
mounted  party  of  twenty-five  going  toward  the  south 
end  of  the  Bull  Mountains,"     If  this  party  was  hostile. 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  337 

it  was  the  scouting  party  from  some  larger  one,  or  it 
might  be  a  scouting  party  of  Crows.  We  had  no  means 
of  knowing  which.  In  any  case,  we  had  to  do  one  thing 
first  of  all,  and  that  was  to  let  our  animals  refresh  them- 
selves. One  of  us  kept  a  good  lookout,  while  the  other 
unsaddled  one  horse  at  a  time,  gave  him  a  bath  from 
the  stream,  dried,  and  resaddled  him;  repeating  this 
until  all  the  horses  had  had  their  bath.  Such  treat- 
ment refreshes  a  horse  more  than  anything  that  you 
can  do  for  him.  All  mountain  men  and  many  Indian 
tribes  understand  the  secret. 

We  were  now  in  the  most  dangerous  part  of  the  coun- 
try from  the  Pan  Handle  of  Texas  to  the  British  hne. 
As  an  expert  scout  would  say,  you  must  see  all  around 
you;  must  have  eyes  in  every  part  of  your  head." 

Dick,  my  best  horse,  was  possessed  of  almost  human 
intelligence.  I  had  trained  him  to  come  to  me  on  a  run 
at  a  whistle,  as  almost  any  horse  can  be  trained  with  a 
little  patience.  I  mounted  Dick,  leaving  Jack  with  the 
outfit.  I  went  up  the  stream  and  picked  up  the  trail 
that  he  had  described  and  followed  it.  As  Jack  had 
said,  it  led  toward  the  south  end  of  Bull  Mountains. 
When  I  reached  a  ridge  on  which  were  some  trees,  a 
plateau  lay  before  me  about  one  mile  in  extent  and 
ending  in  a  broken  country  with  scattering  trees.  I 
could  see  that  the  trail  led  directly  through  a  cluster 
of  pines.  I  got  into  a  draw,  or  low  place,  which  ran 
down  toward  the  Musselshell  River  and  followed  it 
down,  hoping  or  expecting  to  come  across  the  trail  of 


338  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

the  village.  I  followed  the  draw  until  within  half  a 
mile  of  the  river,  and  then  rode  back  across  the  country 
to  Jack,  without  discovering  anything. 

Flat  Willow  Creek  rises  in  the  southeast  end  of  the 
Big  Snowy  Mountains.  A  large  war-party  could  ren- 
dezvous there  and  send  out  small  scouting  parties, 
learn  if  any  enemies  were  in  the  vicinity,  return,  and 
report.  To  a  war  party  all  human  beings  are  considered 
enemies,  except  the  members  of  their  own  party. 

I  asked  Jack  what  he  thought  of  this  part}^,  whose 
trail  he  had  found.  The  trail  was  not  over  a  day  old. 
He  replied  it  was  either  a  scouting  war  party,  or  a 
scouting  party  sent  out  by  the  Crow  chief  to  find  out 
if  any  enemies  were  in  the  country.  I  had  come  to  this 
same  conclusion,  for  in  years  past  I  had  been  out  with 
many  such  parties  on  different  occasions.  At  all 
events,  if  this  party  were  enemies  of  the  Crows,  they 
had  not  as  yet  struck  either  the  village  or  the  lodge- 
pole  trail,  where  the  village  had  passed  along.  One 
thing  was  noticeable  in  this  section.  It  was  in  the 
centre  of  the  buffalo  grazing  ground  at  this  season  of 
the  year,  and  yet  as  far  as  a  powerful  glass  could  view 
the  surrounding  country  no  buffalo  were  to  be  seen; 
though  there  was  abundant  sign  where  they  had  been 
not  many  days  before.  On  the  other  hand,  we  could 
discover  no  signs  where  a  run  had  been  made.  If  any- 
body had  been  chasing  the  buffalo  many  carcasses 
would  be  in  evidence  on  every  side,  A  few  antelope 
were  to  be  seen,  but  they  were  shy  and  constantly  on 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  339 

the  watch,  a  sure  sign  that  Indians  had  passed  over 
the  country. 

It  would  be  very  Instructive  to  writers  of  Indian  lore 
if  they  could  travel  with  an  expert  scout  or  with  an 
Indian  war  party  and  observe  their  actions — their  cau- 
tion and  the  care  taken  to  avoid  being  seen  by  their 
enemies  and  to  circumvent  them.  They  learn  by  the 
actions  of  animals  and  by  the  flight  of  birds  if  enemies 
are  near,  or  of  the  people  who  have  passed  through, 
or  who  may  yet  be  hidden  in,  some  section  of  the  coun- 
try. Jack  was  an  expert  in  observations  of  this  kind. 
Not  the  flight  of  a  bird  escaped  his  eagle  eye. 

We  remained  here  about  two  and  a  half  hours.  The 
horses  had  eaten,  and  were  refreshed  and  in  prime  con- 
dition. When  we  started,  we  followed  the  trail  and 
crossed  the  creek,  the  trail  leading  down  the  creek  on 
the  south  side  to  the  forks  of  the  Musselshell  River. 
Here  the  Crow  village  had  remained  only  one  night. 
They  had  made  a  long  drive  the  day  they  got  to  this 
camp.  Jack  said  that  the  Crows  were  frightened  and 
were  getting  out  of  the  country.  It  had  been  several 
days  since  they  were  in  this  camp.  As  it  was  sundown 
when  we  reached  there,  we  camped,  and  the  night 
passed  without  our  being  disturbed.  Breakfast  was 
over  before  daylight  next  morning.  We  expected  that 
the  trail  would  follow  up  the  river,  but  instead  of  that 
it  went  southeast,  toward  the  divide  of  the  Yellowstone 
River,  and  when  we  reached  the  divide  the  trail  turned 
east.     Jack  was  well  acquainted  with  this  section  of 


340  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

the  country,  having  been  here  with  Piegan  war  parties 
many  times.  The  east  end  of  the  Bull  Mountains  was 
now  some  five  miles  south  of  us.  Like  the  Big  Snowies, 
this  is  a  great  rendezvous  for  war  parties.  We  followed 
the  trail,  and  about  one  o'clock  in  the  day  Jack  turned 
north  half  a  mile  to  a  spring  of  water  of  which  he  knew 
at  the  head  of  the  draw. 

That  night  we  remained  there,  keeping  a  careful 
lookout.  Nothing  happened  in  the  night,  and  by  day- 
light we  were  off  again.  Jack  announced  that  he 
thought  that  the  Crows  would  be  camped  either  on 
upper  or  lower  Porcupine  Creek.  As  we  went  along 
we  saw  a  few  buffalo  and  antelope  feeding  quietly,  good 
evidence  that  they  had  not  been  disturbed  recentl}^. 
As  Jack  was  the  most  expert  trailer,  I  placed  him  in 
the  lead,  directing  him  to  keep  his  eye  on  the  trail, 
while  I  would  keep  a  general  lookout  over  the  country 
for  any  sign  of  danger. 

We  had  travelled  some  five  miles  when,  Hke  a  flash. 
Jack  dismounted.  He  followed  on  the  trail  on  foot 
for  a  short  distance,  and  returning  held  up  five  fingers 
and  made  the  sign  for  the  Blackfeet  Indian.  They  had 
come  up  from  the  Musselshell  River.  We  looked  at 
the  tracks  carefully  and  found  them  fresh.  The  ground 
was  sandy  in  places,  and  where  an  Indian's  foot  had 
been,  we  discovered  grains  of  sand  still  active,  unsettled, 
dropping  down  from  the  sides  of  the  track,  a  sure  sign 
that  they  had  been  made  recently.  The  same  sign  holds 
good  with  horse  tracks,  and  this  sign  can  be  read  by 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  341 

any  person  with  a  quick  eye.  Let  him  put  his  foot  on 
some  sand  and  then  carefully  and  patiently  watch  how 
long  it  takes  for  the  sand  to  become  inactive.  All  such 
signs  are  carefully  studied  by  mountaineers  and  In- 
dians. It  was  plain  enough  to  us.  We  went  on,  keep- 
ing a  sharp  lookout.  Some  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
before  us,  we  could  see  some  timbered  buttes,  and  the 
trail  led  directly  toward  these  trees.  There  was  a  pos- 
sibiHty  that  those  five  Indians  might  be  there,  and  we 
put  our  tools  in  condition  for  instant  use.  We  got 
within  three  hundred  yards  of  the  buttes,  wheeled  to 
the  right,  and  putting  our  horses  on  a  run,  passed  be- 
tween two  small  hills  and  got  beyond  the  first  butte. 
Nothing  was  discovered.  When  we  reached  the  trail. 
Jack  dismounted,  looked  at  it  carefully,  followed  it  a 
short  distance  and  returned,  saying:  "The  Indians  are 
running  here."  In  front  of  us  were  other  buttes  with 
trees  on  them,  and  we  were  now  satisfied  that  the 
Blackfeet  had  discovered  us  and  were  at  this  moment 
planning  a  coup  by  which  they  could  take  us  without 
loss  to  themselves.  To  avoid  being  ambushed,  we  bore 
to  the  left,  keeping  a  long  rifle  shot  from  the  timber 
and  a  keen  lookout.  We  had  passed  perhaps  one 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  beyond  the  first  butte,  when 
two  rifle  shots  were  fired,  the  bullets  going  wide  of  the 
mark.  We  wheeled  to  the  left,  rode  behind  a  small 
knoll  and  dismounted.  Before  we  got  there,  three  more 
shots  were  fired,  the  bullets  coming  unpleasantly  close, 
but  doing  no  harm. 


342  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

We  had  no  sooner  dismounted  than  five  Indians 
charged  us  with  a  yell,  for  they  made  sure  they  had  us. 
Our  outfit  was  a  tempting  bait  for  them.  There  were 
five  good  horses,  to  say  nothing  of  arms  and  other 
property.  If  they  had  succeeded  in  taking  us  in,  they 
could  have  returned  to  their  people  as  great  warriors, 
and  would  have  been  allowed  to  paint  their  spouses' 
faces  to  their  hearts'  content,  and  these  would  have 
been  envied  by  all  the  other  women  in  the  village,  who 
would  not  have  been  permitted  to  take  part  in  the  scalp 
dance  that  would  follow. 

We  let  the  Indians  come  within  sixty  yards,  and  then 
we  showed  ourselves  and  ducked.  The  Indians,  fool- 
like, all  fired;  and,  before  they  could  reload  or  draw 
bows  and  arrows,  the  Sharp  and  the  Henry  got  to  work, 
and  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to  write  this,  five  Black- 
feet  were  on  their  way  to  their  happy  hunting-ground. 
We  got  five  Hudson's  Bay  flintlock  guns,  bows  and 
arrows,  and  other  plunder.  Jack  scalped  two  of  the 
Indians.     I  took  a  fancy  war  bonnet. 

When  we  got  back,  Jack  told  the  circumstances  to 
his  friends  in  the  Piegan  camp.  They  blamed  us  for 
killing  these  people,  saying  that  as  we  were  mounted 
we  should  have  run  away.  If  we  had  run,  the  Black- 
feet  would  have  been  on  our  trail  Hke  a  wolf  on  the 
trail  of  a  wounded  deer.  They  are  hard  to  shake  free 
from  or  to  throw  off"  the  trail.  Jack  justified  our  acts, 
saying  that  they  fired  upon  and  charged  us.  If  they 
had  succeeded  in  getting  us  they  would  have  scalped  us 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  343 

both,  they  knowing  him  to  be  a  Piegan.  He  added 
that  any  Indian,  whether  Blackfoot,  Blood,  or  Piegan 
that  shot  at  him  and  missed,  must  expect  to  be  scalped. 
He  was  asked  if  he  were  not  afraid  that  some  of  the 
friends  of  those  we  had  put  to  sleep  would  revenge 
themselves  by  putting  him  to  sleep.  I  could  not  but 
admire  Jack  when  he  answered  them,  his  eyes  sparkling 
like  fire:  "No!  if  any  one  or  more  want  to  try  that, 
they  all  know  when  and  where  to  find  me,"  As  it  was, 
we  would  not  be  annoyed  any  more  by  this  war  party. 
Jack  told  me  that  West  Porcupine  Creek  took  its 
rise  a  short  distance  from  here.  Passing  by  this  tim- 
bered country,  we  came  to  one  that  was  open,  where  a 
few  buffalo  were  in  sight.  Here  the  trail  bore  to  the 
right,  going  south,  and  followed  a  ridge.  Jack  said 
that  this  ridge  lay  between  East  and  West  Porcupine 
Creeks.  We  travelled  some  twelve  miles  and,  when  we 
passed  over  a  ridge,  discovered  the  smoke  of  a  village 
on  the  lower  or  easternmost  stream.  It  seemed  to  be 
about  eight  miles  distant.  We  moved  toward  it  at  a 
lively  gait,  but  when  we  were  about  a  mile  from  the 
village,  we  could  discern  a  great  commotion  beyond  or 
south  of  it.  Horsemen  were  galloping  back  and  forth 
in  every  direction  as  if  in  a  sham  battle.  Jack  said 
that  he  heard  shots  and  that  he  believed  a  fight 
was  on.  We  pushed  ahead  and  got  to  the  village,  and 
found,  sure  enough,  that  the  Sioux  had  attacked  it, 
trying  to  run  off  the  Crow  ponies.  They  had  been  dis- 
covered by  the  young  Crow  herders  and  the  alarm  was 


344  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

given;  and,  since  Indians  always  keep  their  best  horses 
close  to  the  village,  the  warriors  soon  mounted  and 
rushed  out  to  protect  their  herds.  Nothing  is  more 
disastrous  to  a  camp  than  to  lose  its  horses,  and  they 
will  fight  as  desperately  for  them  as  for  their  families. 

Bull  Goes  Hunting,  the  chief,  met  us,  and,  as  he  did 
so,  put  his  hand  over  his  mouth,  signifying  his  aston- 
ishment at  seeing  us.  He  was  an  old  acquaintance,  a 
friend,  and  we  went  to  his  lodge.  I  left  Jack  and  our 
outfit  in  the  care  of  the  chief,  while  I  mounted  Dick 
to  go  out  and  see  the  fight.  Jack  wished  to  go,  but  I 
would  not  allow  it,  for  he  might  do  some  desperate  act, 
such  as  to  charge  through  the  Sioux  and  might  go  under. 
At  this  time,  he  was  too  valuable  a  man  to  lose.  A  few 
young  warriors  went  with  me,  and  we  soon  got  to  the 
battlefield.  The  first  man  we  met  was  Spotted  Horse, 
a  war  chief.  There  were  not  over  two  hundred  Sioux, 
and  fully  three  hundred  Crows.  We  joined  in  the  half 
fight  half  runaway  that  was  going  on;  though  they  had 
been  fighting  some  time,  not  over  six  on  either  side  had 
been  placed  hors  de  combat.  A  few  were  wounded,  and 
a  few  ponies  put  out  of  action.  Neither  of  the  oppos- 
ing forces  showed  any  generalship. 

Without  underrating  the  Indian,  or  overrating  the 
paleface,  I  may  say  that  I  have  been  with  white  men 
on  the  plains  where  forty  of  them  would  have  made 
short  work  of  either  of  these  contending  forces.  By 
some  poetical  writers,  the  Indian  is  credited  v/ith  pos- 
sessing Spartan  bravery;  but,  with  a  few  exceptions, 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  345 

the  reverse  is  true.  There  are  but  few  mountain  men 
who  cannot  outgeneral  an  Indian. 

After  a  while  the  Crow  chiefs  got  together  for  a 
council,  and  the  result  was  more  like  the  work  of  school- 
boys than  of  warriors  and  chiefs.  I  sat  in  the  council. 
They  spoke  in  their  own  tongue,  half  of  which  I  under- 
stood. They  also  made  signs  for  every  word  spoken, 
and  each  sign  was  as  a,  b,  c,  to  me,  as  of  course  they 
knew.  They  wished  me  to  understand  every  word 
that  they  spoke.  They  asked  my  opinion  of  the  fight 
and  what  they  should  do.  I  advised  them  to  call  off 
their  warriors,  to  form  three  equal  bodies  of  men,  and 
to  charge  the  Sioux  on  both  flanks  and  at  the  front  at 
the  same  time.  Then  the  fight  would  end,  and  the 
Sioux  would  retreat.  The  Indians  gave  a  grunt  and 
said  nothing. 

We  all  joined  again  in  what  one  might  call  playful 
fighting.  I  could  see  that  the  Sioux  were  growing  dis- 
couraged, but  a  desultory  fighting  continued  for  a  short 
time,  when  some  fifty  of  the  bravest  Crow  warriors 
charged  the  right  flank  of  the  Sioux  and  emptied  a  few 
saddles,  but  were  checked  by  a  stand  made  by  a  few 
Sioux.  This  stand  was  made  in  order  to  give  some  of 
their  wounded  an  opportunity  to  leave  the  field.  As 
the  Sioux  were  better  mounted  than  the  Crows,  they 
outstripped  us  on  the  retreat.  We  followed  them  about 
a  mile,  forcing  them  to  abandon  some  thirty  tired 
ponies,  which  the  Crows  captured.  They  scalped  and 
mutilated  a  few  Sioux  and  collected  all  the  plunder 


34^  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

on  the  field.  All  the  wounded  Sioux  had  retired  before 
the  fight  was  over.  Indians  will  remove  the  slain  to 
keep  the  enemies  from  scalping  them.  Whites  do  the 
same. 

We  returned  to  the  village.  The  chiefs  now  asked  my 
object  in  coming  to  their  village.  We  were  now  sitting 
in  the  lodge,  where  our  things  were,  and  I  got  out 
the  large  envelope  containing  my  letter.  It  was  sealed 
with  wax,  and  had  an  eagle  stamped  on  it  as  large  as 
a  dollar.  All  this  show  had  a  moral  effect  on  the  In- 
dians, and  when  they  saw  it  they  believed  that  I  was  a 
messenger  from  the  Great  Father.  After  smoking  the 
medicine-pipe,  as  is  customary  before  a  council,  I  in- 
terpreted the  contents  of  the  letter  in  condensed  form, 
the  substance  of  which  I  have  already  given.  I  urged 
the  Crows  to  go  to  Benton,  telling  them  that  it  would 
be  to  their  advantage  to  do  so.  They  would  receive 
many  presents,  and  besides  would  make  peace  with 
their  ancient  enemies.  They  listened  to  me  attentively, 
and  then  gave  reply  in  the  negative,  saying  that  their 
ponies'  feet  were  getting  tender  and  the  animals  thin 
in  flesh,  that  there  were  no  buffalo  between  where  we 
were  and  Fort  Benton,  and  that  they  must  remain 
where  they  were  in  order  to  secure  meat  for  their  fam- 
ilies. All  this  was  common  sense  from  their  point  of 
view,  and  left  me  no  ground  for  argument.  A  Crow 
party  had  recently  been  to  Fort  Union,  and  had  been 
informed  by  the  traders  there  that  the  next  moon  some 
white  chiefs  would   be  there   to   meet   the   Crows  in 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  347 

council.  This  proved  to  be  the  fact,  as  we  afterward 
learned.  The  Crows  could  go  to  Fort  Union  b}^  easy 
stages  and  be  among  buffalo  all  the  way,  provided 
their  enemies  did  not  run  the  game  out  of  the  country. 

Jack  gave  the  Crows  the  two  scalps,  the  guns,  and 
other  things  that  he  had  taken,  and  they  gave  him 
a  good  mule  and  complimented  him  on  being  a  great 
warrior.  We  told  them  that  another  Blackfeet  war 
party  was  out,  said  to  be  looking  for  Crows,  but  that 
we  did  not  know  where  they  were.  We  got  the  women 
to  cut  some  bunch-grass  for  our  stock,  in  order  that 
they  might  be  in  good  condition  to  make  an  early 
start  next  morning.  During  the  night  Jack  and  I  stood 
guard  turn  about,  and  many  young  Crows  did  the 
same.  By  daylight  we  had  breakfasted.  The  chiefs 
had  assembled  to  see  us  off,  and  I  asked  them  if  they 
knew  where  we  might  find  the  Gros  Ventres.  They 
replied  that  we  would  find  them  either  south  or  east 
of,  and  near  to,  the  Bear  Paw  Mountains.  I  told  them 
that  we  should  try  to  get  them  to  go  to  Benton  if  we 
could  do  so.  It  was  amusing  to  Jack  and  to  me  to 
listen  to  the  chiefs  as  they  gave  us  advice  about  travel- 
ling, just  as  if  neither  of  us  had  had  any  experience. 
Though  it  was  not  needed,  we  took  their  advice  in 
good  part.  We  paid  the  women  for  the  grass  and 
started. 

When  we  left  the  village,  the  war-dance  was  in 
progress  in  one  part,  and  in  another  persons  who  had 
lost  relations  were  mutilating  themselves,  cutting  off 


348  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

their  fingers  or  puncturing  their  legs  and  heads  with 
the  point  of  a  knife,  making  the  blood  flow  freely,  and, 
as  they  did  this,  wailing  and  mourning  the  loss  of 
friends  and  relatives  in  the  fight.  Jack,  whose  horses 
were  good  to  lead,  had  saddled  his  mule.  When  we 
started  on  the  back  track,  we  kept  east  of  our  old  trail. 
We  apprehended  little  danger  of  meeting  Sioux,  Chey- 
ennes,  or  Arapahoes,  and  we  did  not  at  all  regard  the 
other  Blackfeet  war  parties. 

We  made  a  bee-hne  for  the  mouth  of  the  Musselshell 
River,  and  got  there  at  9  A.  M.  next  day,  for  Jack  knew 
every  foot  of  the  country.  No  Indian  signs  were  vis- 
ible. We  collected  some  dry  poles,  bound  them  to- 
gether with  willow  twigs,  put  all  our  property  on  the 
raft,  tied  riatas  to  the  end  of  it,  and,  mounting,  drove 
the  stock  across  the  river,  keeping  hold  of  the  ends  of 
the  ropes.  The  horses  were  good  swimmers,  and  we 
soon  had  the  raft  across.  After  the  horses  had  been 
rubbed  down,  saddled,  and  packed,  we  mounted  and 
were  off.  Not  many  minutes  were  occupied  in  accom- 
plishing the  crossing.  We  had  no  time  to  waste,  for 
the  Indians  might  be  upon  us  at  any  moment. 

We  now  made  a  bee-hne  for  the  Little  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, and  when  we  came  to  a  creek  called  Poshett,^ 
which  rises  on  the  south  side  of  the  Rockies,  we  began 
to  see  carcasses  of  the  buffalo  in  different  places.  The 
meat  had  been  taken  off,  and  a  careful  inspection 
showed  that  the  buffalo  had  not  been  slain  more  than 

*  Fourchette  Creek,  southeast  of  Little  Rocky  Mountains. 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  349 

five  or  six  days.  As  we  followed  up  the  creek  there 
were  more  signs  that  a  run  had  recently  been  made. 

We  had  travelled  fast  that  day,  and  when  we  reached 
a  cluster  of  box-elder  trees,  with  good  grass,  we  deter- 
mined to  remain  there  that  night,  unless  some  hos- 
tiles  should  come  and  veto  our  intention.  Before  un- 
packing we  looked  over  the  surrounding  country  for 
signs  of  village  smoke,  and,  discovering  nothing,  we 
cooked,  feasted,  and  kept  our  live-stock  on  the  best  of 
grass,  all  the  while  keeping  a  good  lookout. 

We  had  breakfast  before  dayhght  next  morning, 
packed  up,  and  were  off.  Following  up  the  creek,  we 
struck  a  lodge-pole  trail  going  east,  between  the  two 
Little  Rockies.  After  it  had  passed  the  buttes,  the 
trail  bore  to  the  left,  going  north,  and  now  we  saw 
fresh  pony-tracks,  a  sure  sign  that  the  village  was  not 
far  off.  Before  us  lay  a  plateau,  and  beyond  that  was 
Beaver  Creek,  where  we  found  the  Gros  Ventres  vil- 
lage. We  had  been  discovered  before  we  got  near  it, 
being  met  outside  the  village  by  Famasi,  the  head 
chief,  an  old  acquaintance,  who  escorted  us  to  his  lodge. 

After  feasting  and  smoking,  a  council  of  all  the  chiefs 
was  held,  and  the  object  of  our  visit  was  stated  to  them. 
They  consulted  among  themselves  for  some  time,  the 
result  of  the  council  being  that  they  agreed  to  go  to 
Benton,  and  they  asked  me  when  they  would  be  wanted 
there.  I  told  them  that  the  commissioners  were  now 
waiting  for  them,  and  that  they  had  better  start  the 
village  for  Benton  to-morrow,  for  it  would  take  them 


350  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

two  and  a  half  or  three  days  to  get  there.  It  was  sixty 
miles  as  the  crow  flies  to  Benton,  but  I  expected  to  be 
there  the  following  night.  I  told  the  chief  that  he 
had  better  send  two  or  three  of  his  men  with  us,  and  he 
agreed  to  do  so. 

I  got  six  women  to  cut  an  abundance  of  grass  for  our 
stock.  They  also  built  a  small  corral  for  us.  Before 
daylight  the  Indians  turned  out  their  ponies  to  graze, 
and  by  daylight  breakfast  was  over,  the  lodges  were 
down,  and  the  women  were  getting  everything  ready 
for  packing.  The  ponies  were  now  brought  in.  Bear 
Wolf  and  Star  Robe,  two  sub-chiefs,  were  selected  to 
accompany  us.  Here  Jack  traded  his  mule  for  eight 
fine  garnished  robes.  He  wanted  me  to  take  seven  of 
them,  but  I  selected  four.  He  packed  the  robes  on 
one  of  his  horses,  and  by  seven  o'clock  we  started,  ta- 
king the  best  and  most  direct  route  to  Benton,  passing  on 
the  south  side  of  the  Bear  Paw  Mountains.  We  nooned 
at  Eagle  Creek,  about  half-way.  Small  bands  of  buffalo 
were  seen,  and  we  killed  two  fat  ones.  Selecting  the 
choicest  parts,  we  feasted  as  no  mortals  ever  feasted, 
unless  they  have  feasted  on  fat  cow  buffalo. 

Our  camp  was  about  one  and  a  half  miles  from  the 
mountains.  Star  Robe,  with  my  glass,  was  looking 
the  mountain  over,  and  when  he  returned  to  camp  he 
said  that  seven  Indians  were  coming  down  the  stream 
afoot.  Jack  said:  "Blackfeet!  I  will  stop  them  from 
coming  here!"  He  stripped  down  to  his  breech-clout, 
mounted  his  best  horse,  and  took  the  ridge.    I  had  Dick 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  351 

ready  for  emergency,  in  case  something  should  happen 
to  Jack.  About  half  a  mile  up  the  stream  Jack  halted. 
Some  two  hundred  yards  beyond  him  the  seven 
Indians  came  up  on  the  ridge.  I  was  watching  every 
move  made.  One  of  the  Indians  approached  Jack. 
After  a  short  time  he  returned  to  the  other  Indian, 
and  they  all  went  back  to  the  mountain.  Jack  in- 
formed us  that  he  had  told  the  Indians  not  to  come 
nigh  us,  as  they  would  get  shot,  but  to  go  to  Benton, 
where  all  the  Indians  were  going  to  meet  the  white 
chiefs  in  council. 

Those  Indians  did  go  to  Benton,  and  Jack,  knowing 
them,  introduced  me  to  them.  They  laughed  at  the 
idea  of  the  two  of  us  being  able  to  put  all  of  them  to 
sleep;  that  nettled  Jack,  and  he  asked  me  to  show  them 
what  I  could  do  with  my  "medicine  gun,"  as  he  called 
my  Henry  rifle.  At  this  place  the  Missouri  River  is 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  wide,  and  on  the 
farther,  or  south,  side  near  the  water  there  stood  a 
stone  about  one  foot  in  diameter.  There  were  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  Indians  present  at  the  time. 
I  had  practised  at  that  rock  more  than  once.  I  fired 
seven  shots  at  it  in  rapid  succession,  and  each  shot 
would  have  hit  an  Indian.  All  the  Indians  put  their 
hands  over  their  mouths — a  sign  of  astonishment. 
They  wished  to  examine  the  rifle,  but  I  refused  to  let 
them  touch  it,  let  alone  examine  it.  I  was  deter- 
mined to  keep  them  mystified  about  the  Henry  rifle 
as  long  as  I  could.     I  was  offered  four  times  the  price 


352  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

I  paid  for  it — one  hundred  and  six  dollars,  as  already 
stated. 

When  I  reported  to  the  commissioners,  they  were 
somewhat  disappointed  that  the  Crows  were  not  com- 
ing to  the  council.  I  notified  the  commissioners  that 
the  Gros  Ventres  would  be  here  in  two  days,  and  that 
two  of  their  chiefs  had  come  here  with  us.  The  com- 
missioners requested  me  to  take  care  of  these  chiefs 
until  the  village  arrived.  I  did  so,  charging  the  com- 
missioners one  dollar  a  meal  for  each  Indian,  the  same 
price  that  I  charged  the  white  men;  but  I  ought  to 
have  had  two  dollars,  as  one  of  these  Indians  could 
get  away  with  as  much  grub  as  two  white  men. 

Some  northern  Indians  were  now  beginning  to  come 
in.  Three  days  after  our  return  the  steamboat  got 
to  Benton.  Two  days  after  the  arrival  of  that  boat 
fully  thirty-five  hundred  Indians  were  in  camp  on 
Benton  Bottom.  The  Piegans  and  the  Bloods  had 
about  three  hundred  and  fifty  lodges.  Father-of- 
all-Children,^  the  Blackfeet  chief,  had  fifty  lodges, 
but  doubled  up;  that  is  to  say,  two  families  in  one 
lodge.  The  total  number  of  Indians,  big  and  little, 
was  about  four  thousand,  and  more  parties  were 
constantly  arriving,  swelling  the  number.  The  other 
Blackfeet  Indians  were  too  far  away  to  attend  the 
council,  and  besides  that,  they  had  no  right  to  be 
there  to  receive  presents  from  the  United  States,  as 

'  MSn  ^s  to'  kos,  literally,  All  are  his  children,  but  commonly  spoken  of 
as  Father  of  all  children. 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  353 

they  belonged  to  Canada.  The  people  from  the  north 
pitched  their  lodges  mostly  on  the  upper  end  of  the 
Bottom,  but  the  Gros  Ventres  pitched  theirs  on  the 
lower  end,  some  three  hundred  yards  east  of  the  old 
fort.  Formerly  they  had  been  friends  with  the  Piegans 
and  the  Bloods,  but  for  the  last  four  years  they  had 
been  at  war,  and  there  was  the  bitterest  hatred  between 
them.  Hence  this  wide  separation  of  their  lodges. 
The  council-chamber  had  been  put  in  order.  The 
American  flag  was  handsomely  displayed,  with  other 
decorations.  The  steamboat  had  been  unloaded  and 
the  goods  stored.  This  was  about  the  20th  of  Septem- 
ber, 1865. 

As  stated  in  the  earlier  part  of  this  narrative,  I  had 
been  appointed  deputy  marshal,  though  I  knew  noth- 
ing about  the  duties  of  the  office.  I  asked  General 
Meagher  what  was  expected  of  me  as  marshal,  and  he 
repHed:  "Keep  order,  see  that  the  chiefs  are  seated  in 
their  allotted  places,  and  that  the  interpreters  are  or- 
dered to  bring  all  chiefs  and  principal  warriors  to  the 
council." 

At  the  appointed  time,  all  had  come  except  the  Gros 
Ventres.  Tunica,  the  interpreter,  returned  from  the 
camp,  saying  that  the  Gros  Ventres  chiefs  were 
afraid  to  come.  The  commissioners  commanded  me, 
as  sergeant-at-arms,  to  bring  the  chiefs  and  headmen 
of  the  tribe  to  the  council.  I  was  armed  at  all  points. 
Dick  was  saddled,  and  I  went  to  the  village.  I  got  six 
of  the  leading  chiefs,  who  wanted  to  bring  their  arms 


354  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

with  them,  but  I  gave  them  to  understand  that  this 
would  not  be  permitted  by  the  white  chiefs  in  council, 
that  no  one  could  enter  the  council-chamber  armed, 
except  myself.  I  gave  them  assurance  that  no  harm 
would  come  to  them  in  council,  and  soon  returned  with 
the  chiefs,  and  placed  them  on  the  left  of  the  Piegans. 
They  had  been  acquainted  with  each  other  before  the 
war,  and  had  been  good  friends. 

It  was  one  P.  m.  when  the  clerk  produced  a  roll  of 
closely  written  sheets  of  paper.  It  looked  to  me  to  be 
two  quires,  the  treaty  which  came  from  the  Indian  Com- 
missioner at  Washington.  The  clerk  began  reading  it 
by  sections,  and  then  waited  to  have  it  interpreted.  The 
Piegans,  Bloods,  and  Blackfeet  needed  but  one  inter- 
preter, but  the  Gros  Ventres  had  to  have  their  own  in- 
terpreter. It  took  fifteen  to  twenty  minutes  to  get 
through  with  one  sentence,  and  even  then  neither  in- 
terpreter nor  Indians  understood  one-tenth  of  its  mean- 
ing. I  saw  that  it  would  take  forty  days  to  get  through 
if  a  change  was  not  brought  about.  Little  Dog,  the 
Piegan  chief,  told  his  interpreter  to  inform  the  commis- 
sioners that  the  council  would  be  adjourned  until  next 
day  in  order  to  consult  on  the  mode  of  procedure  to 
be  used  thereafter  and  the  language  to  be  employed  in 
carrying  through  a  treaty  with  a  wild,  untamed  lot  of 
Indians,  ninety  per  cent  of  whom  had  no  desire  to  mix 
with  or  deal  with  any  whites,  except  to  trade  for  cer- 
tain commodities  which  they  stood  in  need  of.  The 
commissioners  knew  as  little  of  how  to  proceed  to  make 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  355 

those  Indians  understand  their  meaning  as  an  Apache 
would  know  of  Latin. 

My  eating-house  now  did  a  rushing  business,  for  that 
evening  I  was  asked  to  give  supper  to  all  the  chiefs. 
It  would  have  been  amusing  to  any  one  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  Indian  character  to  see  the  warriors  who,  when 
they  heard  I  was  going  to  give  all  the  chiefs  their  supper, 
came  to  me  and  claimed  to  be  chiefs.  We  did  feed 
perhaps  a  dozen  leading  warriors  besides  the  chiefs. 
I  notified  the  cook  to  be  prepared  to  feed  about  forty 
Indians.  We  had  plenty  to  eat,  but  no  fancy  dishes. 
The  cook  was  well  up  in  his  business. 

After  supper,  the  commissioners  called  the  inter- 
preter and  me  to  council  with  them,  for  they  saw  that 
some  change  must  be  made  in  the  proceedings.  We 
told  them  that  they  must  condense,  must  leave  out 
** party  of  the  first  part,"  "party  of  the  second  part," 
"for  and  in  consideration  of,  etc.,"  and  must  state  in  as 
few  words  as  possible  what  they  desired  of  the  In- 
dians. The  clerk  got  to  work,  and  in  half  an  hour  had 
the  forty  closely  written  sheets  of  paper  condensed  to 
less  than  one,  which  contained  the  meaning  of  the 
whole. 

At  nine  o'clock  next  morning  the  council  met  again, 
all  the  chiefs  being  in  their  seats.  The  Small  Robe 
band  of  Piegans  claimed  the  land  on  the  south  side  of 
the  Missouri  River  as  far  as  Musselshell  River.  They 
ceded  in  the  treaty  all  their  rights  to  this  territory. 
Other  Piegans  and  the  Blood  Indians  claimed  territory 


356  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

along  the  summit  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  south  to 
the  Little  Blackfoot  River,  and  thence  southeast  to  the 
Missouri  River.  In  the  treaty  they  ceded  all  the  ter- 
ritory from  the  mouth  of  the  Marias  River  up  the 
Marias  to  the  Teton  River,  following  the  middle  of 
the  stream  to  its  source,  for  a  stipulated  sum  to  be 
given  them  for  twenty  years.  The  Gros  Ventres  had 
no  land  to  cede.  The  Blackfeet  also  had  no  land  to 
cede,  and  according  to  the  views  of  many  they  had  no 
business  in  this  treaty,  because  they  lived  in,  and  claimed 
to  belong  to,  what  they  called  Red  Coat  Land,  namely, 
that  belonging  to  King  George.  Some  of  them  wore 
King  George's  medals,  and  showed  that  they  felt  proud 
of  them.  All  the  country  east  of  the  Teton  River  was 
set  apart  for  a  Piegan  and  Blood  reserve.  The  treaty 
was  concluded  by  five  P.  M.  All  the  Indians  understood 
what  was  wanted  of  them,  and  the  preliminaries  were 
thus  shortened  by  at  least  thirty-nine  days.  The  treaty 
was  not  satisfactory  to  all  the  Indians,  but  they  had 
to  abide  by  it.  Without  the  influence  of  some  of  the 
mountaineers — who  never  received  any  credit  for  the 
part  they  took  in  bringing  it  about — that  treaty  would 
not  have  been  made  at  that  time. 

The  next  day  began  the  distributing  of  the  goods. 
It  would  take  the  pen  of  a  Mark  Twain  to  describe  the 
scenes  that  took  place.  Two  days  were  required  to  get 
through  this  distribution,  and  the  goods  that  remained 
and  were  to  be  issued  to  half-breeds  were  put  in  my 
charge,  for  distribution  when  the  breeds  had  all  arrived. 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  357 

The  next  morning  the  commissioners  paid  me  out  of 
the  Indian  goods  for  feeding  the  Indians  and  for  my 
trip  across  the  country,  and  I  had  Jack  paid  for 
his  time,  also  from  the  goods.  The  commissioners 
then  left  for  Helena  with  Agent  Gad.  E.  Upson.  He 
knew  as  much  about  an  Indian  as  I  did  about  the  in- 
habitants of  Jupiter. 

About  ten  a.  m.,  one  hour  after  the  commissioners 
had  left.  Little  Dog,  chief  of  the  South  Piegans,  came 
into  town  and  found  us.  This  man  was  one  of  the 
noblest  and  bravest  chiefs  living  at  that  day.  He  was  a 
friend  to  the  whites,  and  had  killed  four  of  the  under 
chiefs  of  his  tribe  for  warring  against  the  whites.  He 
could  muster  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  warriors. 
When  he  found  me,  he  told  me  that  the  North  Piegans, 
under  Mountain  Chief,  the  Bloods,  and  the  Blackfeet, 
had  secured  some  whiskey  and  were  getting  ugly  and 
singing  their  war-songs.  Little  Dog  advised  the  whites 
to  remain  in  their  houses.  He  believed  that  these 
northern  people  would  attack  the  Gros  Ventres  camp, 
and  might  also  shoot  at  the  whites.  Some  Indian 
women  had  warned  us  of  the  situation  just  before 
Little  Dog  came  in.  Now  the  agent  had  a  twelve- 
pound  brass  cannon.  We  put  this  in  a  "doby" 
building  which  was  used  as  a  warehouse,  and  through 
the  wall  knocked  a  hole  about  twelve  inches  in 
diameter  for  the  muzzle,  as  well  as  several  port- 
holes for  rifles.  There  was  no  one  present  who  knew 
much   about  cannons,  but  we  loaded  the  piece   with 


358  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

six  pounds  of  powder  rammed  tight,  twenty  pounds 
of  one-ounce  balls,  and  some  smaller  bullets,  for  we 
were  determined  to  have  it  double-shotted.  J.  V. 
Cochran,  who  lives  in  Billings,  Montana,  had  charge  of 
the  cannon.  He  was,  and  is,  as  game  as  a  war  eagle, 
and  if  called  upon,  would  have  fired  the  cannon  if  it 
had  burst  in  a  thousand  pieces. 

We  had  rifle-pits  dug  at  different  points  of  vantage, 
and  there  were  forty-five  white  men  to  defend  them. 
At  the  fort,  the  Northwest  Fur  Company  had  twelve 
men,  all  of  them  in  the  fort,  with  the  gates  locked.  No 
assistance  could  be  expected  from  them.^ 

I  mounted  Dick  and,  with  Little  Dog  and  Jack,  paid 
a  visit  to  the  Gros  Ventres.  They  had  already  been 
warned,  had  their  lodges  pitched  in  a  circle,  their  ponies 
corralled,  and  rifle-pits  dug  all  around  the  village.  All 
the  warriors  were  stripped  to  the  breech-clout,  and 
many  of  them  were  painted  as  demons  are  supposed  to 
paint.  Famasi  and  Star  Robe,  the  chiefs,  met  us  out- 
side. Little  Dog  informed  them  that  he  would  trj'^  to 
prevent  the  hostiles  from  attacking  them,  and  advised 
them  not  to  shoot  first  if  the  hostiles  came.  He  de- 
clared that  he  and  his  people  would  be  their  friends, 
and  bidding  them  good-by,  we  returned.  After  looking 
over  the  ground  and  seeing  that  everything  was  in  or- 
der for  defence  in  the  town,  I  went  with  Little  Dog  and 
Jack  to  the  village  of  the  South  Piegans.  The  young 
men  were  busy  putting  their  arms  in  order  for  action, 
for  they  expected  a  fight.    It  must  be  remembered  that 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  359 

at  this  time  bad  blood  existed  between  many  of  the 
North  Piegans  and  the  South  Piegans,  and  though 
things  were  outwardly  peaceful  enough,  a  war  between 
them  could  easily  have  been  precipitated.  Leaving 
the  South  Piegans,  I  rode  around  to  the  other  villages 
and  notified  all  the  chiefs  that  they  must  control  their 
young  men,  must  not  permit  them  to  commit  any 
overt  act,  and  must  keep  them  away  from  the  Gros 
Ventres  village,  or  half  of  their  warriors  would  be 
killed.  Jack  confirmed  my  assertion,  adding  much 
more  to  it.  The  chiefs  used  their  utmost  endeavor  to 
control  their  young  men,  and  they  partially  succeeded 
with  many. 

The  day  after  the  Indians  left  the  boys  joked  me 
about  forty-five  men  going  to  kill  half  of  fifteen  hundred 
warriors,  saying:  "Bill  had  more  gall  than  the  devil, 
and  could  out-blufF  six." 

About  eleven  o'clock  five  hundred  naked  warriors 
in  their  war  regalia,  painted  and  mounted  on  their 
best  ponies,  which  were  also  painted,  went  down  the 
bottom  toward  the  Gros  Ventres  village,  yelling  and 
uttering  their  war-cries.  The  ground  fairly  trembled 
under  the  horses'  feet.  Every  one  expected  that  the 
fight  was  on.  Little  Dog  had  sixty  warriors  at  the 
upper  end  of  the  town.  I  remained  with  him,  and 
we  carefully  watched  the  proceedings  below,  expect- 
ing every  moment  to  hear  shots.  The  Indians  rode 
around  the  Gros  Ventres  camp,  some  two  hundred 
yards  distant   from  it.     If  one  shot   had   been   fired 


360  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

by  either  party,  a  bloody  fight  would  have  followed, 
as  those  Indians  who  were  now  held  back  by  their 
chiefs  would  then  have  joined  their  friends.  The 
whites  could  not  have  left  the  town  to  give  assistance 
to  the  Gros  Ventres,  nor  could  the  Gros  Ventres  leave 
their  village  to  help  the  whites.  I  think  that  if  it  had 
come  to  the  point,  Little  Dog  would  have  joined  the 
whites.  It  was  believed  by  many  experienced  Indian 
men  present  that  our  visit  to  the  Gros  Ventres  village 
prevented  what  might  have  been  a  massacre,  or  at 
least'would  have  been  a  hard  fight.  There  were  many 
hot-headed  and  brave  young  Gros  Ventres,  and  it  may 
have  been  that  our  warning  kept  them  from  some  rash 
acts. 

Little  Dog  notified  all  the  hostile  bands  that  if  they 
attacked  the  whites  they  would  have  him  to  fight. 
They  were  all  of  them  afraid  of  him,  and  I  know  that 
his  stand  had  a  moral  effect. 

The  hostiles  rode  around  the  Gros  Ventres  village 
many  times,  yelling,  calling  names,  and  sending  forth 
challenges  to  the  Gros  Ventres  to  come  out  and  fight; 
but  the  Gros  Ventres  remained  quiet  in  their  rifle-pits. 
I  learned  afterward  that  it  was  all  their  chiefs  could 
do  to  keep  their  young  men  from  accepting  the  hostiles' 
challenges  to  fight.  After  a  great  deal  of  this  verbal 
defiance,  the  hostiles  rode  back  to  their  camp  on  a  run, 
firing  off  their  guns  in  the  air.  When  opposite  the  town 
they  halted  and  formed  a  half  circle  and  began  to  sing 
their  war-songs.     After  the  songs  a  few  approached 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  361 

within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  agency  building,  call- 
ing the  whites  dogs  and  women,  names  which  were 
understood.  The  interpreters  were  directed  to  tell  the 
Indians  to  stop  their  talk  or  we  would  kill  them,  and 
presently  they  rode  back  to  their  company,  gave  a  yell 
of  defiance,  and  left  for  their  villages. 

This  lull  gave  us  all  an  opportunity  to  eat  dinner. 
I  took  Little  Dog,  Jack,  and  three  other  chiefs  with  me 
to  dinner,  and  just  as  we  had  finished  eating  a  fearful 
yell  was  heard.  The  chiefs  jumped  up  and  mounted 
quickly,  making  signs  to  the  whites  to  remain  in  the 
houses.  I  mounted  Dick  and  went  with  the  chiefs, 
though  many  of  the  men  called  out  to  me:  "Don't  go, 
sheriff."  I  had  decided  what  I  should  do  in  case  of 
a  fight.  If  the  hostiles  attacked  the  town,  and  Little 
Dog  attacked  the  hostiles,  I  would  remain  with  him, 
for  there  I  would  be  of  more  benefit  to  the  town 
than  I  would  be  in  the  building.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  Little  Dog  failed  to  act,  I  could  return  to  the 
town. 

The  yell  was  given  by  some  one  thousand  two 
hundred  painted  savages,  each  of  whom  had  tied 
from  five  to  twenty  yards  of  calico  to  his  horse's  tail 
and  started  out  on  a  run  all  over  the  bottom.  Calico 
of  many  colors  was  flying  in  all  directions,  and  each 
Indian  was  trying  to  make  his  pony  step  on  the  calico 
tied  to  the  horse  next  in  advance.  They  were  yelling 
and  firing  off  their  guns  in  every  direction.  It  was  a 
wild  orgy,  such  as  neither  I  nor  any  one  else  had 


362  Beyond  the  Old  Frontier 

ever  beheld,  and  we  had  witnessed  many  a  wild 
scene.  It  was  something  for  a  Rembrandt  or  a  Rem- 
ington to  paint;  the  first  scene  of  the  kind,  and,  I 
believe,  the  last,  ever  seen  in  the  United  States. 

[A  scene  somewhat  similar  to  the  one  described  took 
place  in  southern  Nebraska  in  the  year  1867  when  the 
Cheyennes  ditched  a  freight  train  on  the  railroad  then 
being  constructed  across  the  continent.  The  Indians 
who  took  part  in  the  wrecking  of  this  train  have  told 
me  how  the  freight  cars  were  broken  open,  the  goods 
taken  from  them  and  scattered  over  the  prairie,  and 
how  the  young  men  in  sport  knotted  the  ends  of 
bolts  of  calico  to  their  horses'  tails  and  then  gal- 
loped wildly  in  all  directions,  the  cloth  streaming  be- 
hind them  in  the  wind.] 

That  night  the  Gros  Ventres,  like  the  Arabs,  silently 
moved  their  village,  without  being  discovered  by  their 
enemies.  The  next  morning  all  the  Indians  except 
Little  Dog's  band  left  for  the  north,  to  go  to  their  own 
country.  Before  they  left  two  war  parties  had  been 
organized  to  raid  upon  the  miners  and  ranchmen  in 
different  sections  of  the  Territory.  Such  was  the  re- 
sult of  this  great  treaty. 

Before  they  moved  out  a  few  of  us  visited  the  Indian 
villages.  As  many  Indians  -were  dissatisfied  with  the 
treaty,  they  looked  on  us  with  distrust,  and  hatred  was 
plainly  visible  in  their  faces  and  their  actions.  We 
assumed  the  authority  to  notify  the  chiefs  that  they 
must  control  their  young  men  and  keep  them  from  steal- 


The  Council  at  Fort  Benton  363 

ing  from  the  whites,  or  war  on  them  by  the  whites 
would  continue.  In  part  the  treaty  was  successful. 
As  a  whole  it  was  a  failure,  for  a  chronic  state  of  warfare 
continued  for  years. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abenakis,  58. 

Abert,  Lt.,  205. 

A  Boy  in  Indian  Camps,  235,  237. 

Adventures  in  Mexico  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  194. 

Adventures  on  the  Oregon  or  Colum- 
bia River,  4. 

Agave  Americana,  197. 

"Albatross,"  36. 

Ama-ketsa,  89,  90,  ill. 

American  Fur  Co.,  5,  153. 

Antelope,  habits  of,  310. 

Apache,  138,  154,  188. 

Arapahoes,  154,  161,  188,  260,  329, 

335- 
Arkansas  River,  128,  129,  130,  189. 
Arkansor  River,  278. 
Arrow  Creek,  333. 
Arroyo  Hondo,  147. 
Assiniboine,  Fort,  121. 
Astor  Company,  5. 
Astor  House,  278. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  3,  et  seq. 
Astor  project,  38. 
Astoria,  3,  12,  42. 
Astoria,  building  of,  10. 

Bait  for  alligator,  279. 

Baker,  I.  G.,  328. 

Baker's  Bay,  8,  37. 

Ban-at-tees,  88,  III. 

Bannocks,  88. 

Barbadoes,  194. 

Battle  of  bulls,  294. 

Battles  at  Adobe  Walls,  154,  et  seq. 

Battle  with  Fiegans,  95. 


Bay,  Baker's,  8,  37. 

Bayard,  Lt.  Geo.  D.,  155. 

Bayou  Salado,  207,  208,  230. 

Bear  hunting,  65,  313,  317. 

Bear  Paw  Mountains,  346,  350. 

Bear  River,  1 1 2. 

Bear  Wolf,  350. 

Beaubien,  Charles,  170. 

Beaubien,  Narcisse,  170. 

"Beaver,"  25,  26. 

Beaver  Creek,  349. 

Beaver  trap,  79. 

Bellevue  Point,  14. 

Bent,  Charles,   128,   137,   141,   142, 

162,  215. 
Bent,  Charles  (the  younger),  130. 
Bent,  Colonel  {See  Wm.  W.  Bent). 
Bent  County  (Colo.),  190. 
Bent,  George,  128,  130,  139. 
Bent,  George  (the  younger),  130. 
Bent,  Governor  (death  of),  144. 
Bent,  John,  127. 
Bent,  Julia,  130. 
Bent,  Mary,  130. 
Bent,  Robert,  128,  130,  139. 
Bent,  Robert  (the  younger),  130. 
Bent,  St.  Vrain  &  Co.,  237. 
Bent,  Silas,  127. 
Bent,  Silas  (the  younger),  127. 
Bent,  Wm.  W.,  127,  128,  139,  141; 

(death  of),  158. 
Bent  &  St.  Vrain,  132. 
Benton,  326. 
Bent's  Fort,  127,  130,  248. 

(Farnham's  description),  158. 
Bent's  Old  Fort  (described),  132. 


367 


368 


Index 


Big  Bend,  304. 

Big  Snowy  Mountains,  338,  340. 

Big  Timbers,  157. 

Birch  bark,  57. 

Birch-bark  canoes,  57. 

Black  Beaver,  171. 

Black  Butte,  335. 

Black,  Captain,  37. 

Black  Hills,  132. 

Blackfeet,   loi,   103,   104,  116,  329, 

335>3S2- 
Blair,  Frank  P.,  140,  170. 
Bloods,  329,  352. 
Boast  of  voyageur,  122. 
Boggs,  Charles,  153. 
Boggs,  Tom,  153,  179,  182,  188. 
Bois  de  caches,  242. 
Boucharville,    306,    311,    312,    316, 

320. 
Bourgeois,  92. 
Box  Elder  Creek,  336. 
Breakfast,  Indian,  17. 
Breaking  mules,  239. 
Buchanan,  Honorable  James,  142. 
Buffalo  bull,  adventure  with,  299. 
Buffalo  habit,  113. 
Buffalo  hunting,  222. 
Buffalo  running,  290,  296. 
Building  of  Astoria,  10. 
Bull  Goes  Hunting,  344. 
Bull  Mountains,  336,  337,  340. 

California  a?id  Oregon  Trail,  237. 
Calispels,  loo. 
Camp  on  the  march,  250. 
Camp  on  the  prairie,  282. 
Campbell,  Robert,  128. 
Canadian  River,  138. 
Candles,  tallow,  185, 
Candy-pulling,  185. 
Canoe  management,  8. 
Canoe  Point,  113. 
Captain  Black,  37. 
Captain  Thorn,  7,  9,  24. 
Carcajou,  229. 


Carpenter,  E.  W.,  328. 

Carroll  &  Steele,  328. 

Carson,  Kit,  131,  132,  154,  162,  163, 

169,  170,  179;  (death  of),  158. 
Cascades,  26,  59. 
Cath-le-yach-e-yach,  42. 
Catlin,  281. 
Cayuse,  44. 
Cedar  Lake,  121. 
Chadwick,  Mr.,  238,  244. 
Chardon,  Mr.,  304,  306,  315. 
Cheyennes,  131,  154,  157,  161,  188, 

329.  335- 
Chihuahua,  194,  203. 
Chihuahua,  game  of,  203. 
Chinooke,  8. 
Chinook  Point,  g. 
Chinooks,  9. 
Chipita,  184,  185. 
Chouteau  County  (Mont.),  328. 
Chouteau,  Jr.  &  Co.,  Pierre,  238. 
Chouteaus,  130. 
Cimarron  River,  167. 
Clarke,  John,  35. 
Clark's  Fork,  17. 
Cochran,  J.  V.,  358. 
Columbia,  Forks  of,  26. 
Columbia  River,  3,  ei  seq. 
Comanches,  attack  by,  260. 
Comanches,  138,  154,  163,  176,  188, 

260. 
Come  Comly,  37. 
Comelops,  27. 

Coolidge,  Mr.,  264,  266,  267. 
Council  at  Fort  Benton,  The,  323, 

325- 
Council  Bluffs,  282. 
Council  Grove,  Kan.,  241. 
Cowlitz  River,  72. 
Cox,  Ross,  5,  24. 
Creeks  {see  River). 
Crees,  100. 

Crooks,  Ramsey,  24,  25,  27, 
Crows,  116,  312,  329,  332,  33S. 
Cuba,  194. 


Index 


369 


Daughters  of  the  American  Revolu- 
tion, 190. 
Davis,  Charles,  179. 
Dawson,  James,  320. 
Day,  John,  25,  27. 
Day's,  John,  Valley,  104,  105. 
Dease,  J.  W.,  94. 
Deep  Creek,  334. 
Dela  wares,  171,  175. 
De  Lisle,  Frank,  239. 
Diamond  Springs,  142. 
Diaz,  Porfirio,  195. 
Dog  flesh  as  food,  253. 
"Dolly"  (schooner),  23. 
Doniphan,  Colonel  A.  W.,  142,  204. 
Doniphan's  Expedition,  132,  136. 
Drinker,  Mr.,  238. 

Eagle  Creek,  350. 
Eagle  Eye,  330. 
Eagle  Tail  Feathers,  138. 
Edmonton,  121. 
El  Paso,  194,  205. 
Emigrant  trail,  183. 
Eyacktana,  48,  50. 
Eyakema  Valley,  44. 

Famasi,  349,  358. 
Farnham,  R.,  24. 
P'arnham,  Thos.  J.,  158. 
Father  of  all  Children,  352. 
Feast,  Indian,  60. 
Fernandez,  145. 
Fight  at  Arroyo  Hondo,  147. 
Fight  with  Blackfeet,  341. 
Fisher,  179. 

Fitzpatrick,  Thos.,  140,  172. 
Flathead  House,  117. 
Flathead  River,  102. 
Flathead  River  Post,  100. 
Flatheads,  100. 
Flat  Willow  Creek,  336,  338. 
Fontaine-qui-bouille,  208. 
forest  and  Stream,  326. 


Fort  Adobe,  138,  139,  153. 

Assiniboine,  121. 

Bent,  127,  130,  248. 

Benton,  326. 

Berthold,  316. 

Fauntleroy,  158. 

Flathead  River  Post,  100. 

Garry,  5. 

George,  5,  42. 

Jasper  House,  121. 

Larpenteur's  Post,  304. 

Leavenworth,  132. 

Lyon,  158. 

McKenzie,  301. 

Minitaree,  304. 

Minitaree  Post,  320. 

Nez  Perces,  71,  72,  75,  94. 

Okanagan,  43,  53. 

Pierre,  290. 

Rocky  Mountain  House,  121. 

St.  Vrain,  138,  139,  153, 

Spokane,  27,  28,  32. 

Spokane  House,  95,  100. 

Union,  290,  306,  307,  309,  320, 
346- 

Vermilion,  289. 

White  River  Post,  303,  304. 

William  (Bent's),  130,  171,  248. 

William  (N.  W.  Co.),  42. 

Wise,  158. 
Fourchette  Creek,  348. 
Francisco,  131. 
Franklin,  Captain  John,  121. 
Eraser  River,  23. 
Fur  Hunters  of  the  Far  West,  4,  41. 

Game  of  Chihuahua,  203. 
Garrard,  Lewis  H.,  132,  145,  237. 
Garry,  Fort,  5. 
George,  Fort,  5,  42. 
"Gibraltar  of  Columbia,"  76. 
Goat,  white,  19. 
Goddin  River,  104,  105,  116. 
Governor  Charles  Bent,  141,  259. 
Grand  Detour,  304. 


370 


Index 


Greeley,  Colo.,  1 54. 
Green,  Andrew,  137,  184. 
Green,  Dick,  138. 
Greenhorn  River,  152,  208. 
Grizzly  bear,  64. 

Gros  Ventres,  329,  332,  349,  352, 
353- 

Hallock,  Charles,  176. 
Hamilton,  Wm.  T.,  325. 
Hatcher,  179,  180,  182,  184. 
Hawkins,  John,  208. 
He-him'ni-ho-nah',  Freckled  Hand, 

179. 
Hell's  Gate,  loi. 
Highwood  Mountains,  333. 
His'si-o-mc'ta-ne,  167. 
Hodgens,  88,  89,  90. 
Ho-nih,  Wolf,  179. 
Horses  recovered  from  Crows,  165. 
Horse-taking  by  Comanches,  164. 
Hudson  Bay  Company,  3,  et  seq. 
Hudson  Bay  Company,VVith  the,  91. 
Huerfano  River,  208. 
Hughes,  J.  T.,  132. 
Hunt,  Wilson  Price,  5,  24,  35. 

Independence,  Mo.,  281. 

Indian  feast,  60. 

Indian  tribes:  Abenakis,  58;  Apache, 
138,  154,  188;  Arapahocs,  154, 161, 
188,  260,  329,  335;  Ban-at-tees, 
88,  in;  Bannocks,  88;  Blackfeet, 
loi,  103,  104,  116,  329,  335,  352; 
Bloods,  329,  352;  Calispels,  100; 
Cath-le-yach-e-yach,  42;  Cayuse, 
44;  Cheyennes,  131,  154,  157,  161, 
188,  329,  335,  362;  Chinooke  or 
Chinooks,  9;  Comanches,  138,  154, 
163,  176,  188,  260;  Crees,  100; 
Crows,  116,  312,  329,  332,  335; 
Delawares,  171,  175;  Flatheads, 
100;  Gros  Ventres,  329,  332,  349, 
3S2,  353;  Iroquois,  58,  65,  72,  73, 
100,  loi,  115;  Kiowas,  138,  154, 


155,  161,  188;  Kutenais,  100; 
Minitarees,  309;  Navajo,  142; 
Nez  Perces,  16,  27,  32,  44,  88,  102, 
116;  Okanagan,  54;  Palouse,  100; 
Piegans,  95,  98,  99,  100,  loi,  104, 
105,  106,  329,  352,  355;  Pisscows, 
44)  53;  Saulteaux,  100;  Shahap- 
tin;  16,  17;  Shaw-ha-ap-tens  {See 
Shahaptin);  Shawnees,  171,  175; 
She-Whaps,  23,  27,  61,  64;  Sho- 
shoni,  88,  178;  Sioux,  329,  335; 
Snakes,  25,  72,  81,  84,  85,  88,  90, 
100;  Spokanes,  100;  Suhtai,  167; 
Walla  Walla,  17,  82;  War-are-ree- 
kas  (Shoshoni),  89,  in;  Wy-am- 
pams,  16;  Wyandottcs,  239. 

Indians  and  Their  Battles,  75. 

International  boundary,  321. 

Iroquois,  58,  65,  72,  73,   lOO,   lOl, 

IIS- 

Ishmah,  301,  308. 

Jack,  330,  358. 

Jasper  House,  I2I. 

Juarez,  195. 

Judith  Mountains,  335,  336. 

Judith  River,  326,  327,  335. 

Kamloops,  27. 

Kansas  City,  Mo.,  141. 

Kearny,  General  S.  W.,   142,   161, 

162,  204. 
Keith,  James,  42,  43,  58. 
Kiowas,  138,  154,  161,  188. 
Kiowa  woman,  168. 
Kipp,  James,  281,  289,  320. 
Kipp,  Joe,  328. 
Kittson,  Mr.,  77,  78,  81. 
Knife  River,  304. 
Kutenais,  100. 

La  Bonte,  233. 
La  Canada,  148. 
Lake  Bourbon,  121. 
Larocque,  Joseph  Felix,  I2I. 


Index 


371 


Larpenteur's  Post,  304. 

Leavenworth,  Fort,  132. 

Lee,  General,  238. 

Lewis  and  Clark,  71,  103. 

Lewis  Fork,  17,  90. 

Life  at  Bent's  Fort,  170. 

Little  Blackfoot  River,  356. 

Little  Dog,  330,  et  seq. 

Little  Missouri  River,  316,  317. 

Little  Mountain,  138. 

Little  Rocky  Mountains,  348,  349. 

Little  White  Man,  128. 

Long  Narrows,  24,  26. 

Madeira  Islands,  194. 

Maguey,  197, 

Malades  River,  105,  112. 

Mammoth  Cave,  Ky.,  280. 

Marias  River,  356. 

"Martha,"  320. 

Maxwell,  L.,  179. 

McDonald,  Finan,  94,  98,  99,  103. 

McDonald,  John  (Bras  Croche),  43. 

McDougall,  Duncan,  6,  10,  36. 

McKay,  Alexander,  6,  24. 

McKay,  young,  44. 

McKenzie,  Alexander,  3. 

McKenzie,  Donald,  24,  25,  26,  33, 

58,  69,73- 78. 
McKenzie,  Kenneth,  238. 
McLellan,  Donald,  5,  24. 
McTavish,  J.  G.,  32. 
Meagher,  General  Francis,  326,  327, 

328,353. 
Medicine  Springs,  332,  335. 
Men-es-to'-kos,  352. 
Minitaree  Fort,  304. 
Minitaree  Post,  320. 
Minitarees,  309. 
Missoula,  Mont.,  327. 
Missouri  River,  332. 
Moccasin  Mountains,  332. 
Mora,  N.  M.,  158. 
Mormons,  282. 
Mountain  Chief,  357. 


Mountain  sheep,  221. 

Mountains:  Bear  Paw,  346,  350;  Big 
Snowy,  338,  340;  Bull,  336,  337, 
340;  Highwood,  333;  Judith,  335, 
336;  Little  Rocky,  348,  349;  Moc- 
casin, 332;  Turtle,  316. 

Mourning,  Indian,  82,  347. 

Munson,  Judge,  328. 

Murray,  178,  179,  180. 

Musselshell    River,    336,    337,    339, 

348,  357-^ 
Aly  Sixty  Years  on  the  Plains,  326, 

Navajo  Indians,  142. 

New  Caledonia,  25. 

Nez  Perces,  16,  27,  32,  44,  88,  102, 

116. 
Nez  Perces  Fort,  71,  72,  75,  94. 
No-ma-nih',  Fish,  179. 
North  Platte  River,  183. 
Northwest  Company,  3,  et  seq. 
Northwesters,  4,  et  seq. 
Northwest  Fur  Co.,  41. 
Norway  House,  121,  122. 

Oakinacken  River,  19. 
Ogden,  Peter,  73. 
Okanagan,  Fort,  43,  53. 
Okanagan  Indians,  54. 
Okanagan  River,  19,  et  seq. 
Okanogan,  20. 
Okinagan,  20. 
"Old  Bark,"  259. 
One-eyed  Juan,  183. 
Otero  Co.  (Colo.),  190. 
Outfit  for  prairie  travel,  330. 
Owl  Woman,  129. 

Pacific  Fur  Co.,  5,  et  seq. 
Paint,  239. 

Palliser,  Colonel  Wray,  277. 
Palliser,  John,  277. 
Palouse,  100. 
Paquenode,  306. 
Parkraan,  237. 


372 


Index 


Pau-e-sih',  Flat  Nose,  179. 

Pawnee  Fork,  176,  260. 

"Pawnee"  (Kiowa  chief),  155. 

Payette  River,  107. 

Peacock's  Ranch,  155. 

Peck,  R.  M.,  154. 

Perey,  306,  308. 

Piegans,  98,  99,  100,  loi,  104,  105, 

106,  329,  352. 
Piegans,  battle  with,  95. 
Pierre,  Fort,  290. 
Pierre,  S.  D.,  290. 
"Pilot  Knobs,"  90. 
Pisscow  River,  19. 
Pisscows,  44,  53. 
Plum  Creek,  335. 
Point  Canoe,  113. 
Point  Chinook,  9. 
Point  George,  9. 
Point  Vancouver,  14. 
Po-o-om'mats,  Gray  Blanket,  179. 
Poor  (Lean)  Bear,  138. 
Porcupine  Creek,  340,  343. 
Poshett  Creek,  348. 
Power,  T.  C,  328. 
Prairie  fire,  284. 
Prairie  traveller,  277. 
Priest  Rapids,  19. 
Prince,  85. 

Pueblo,  Colo.,  129,  130,  157. 
Pulque,  197. 
Purgatoire    River,    129,    130,    157, 

171- 

Quarrel,  Indian,  86. 

"Raccoon,"  37. 

Raids  by  Indians,  198. 

Rattling  Buttes,  335. 

Red  Coat  Land,  356. 

Red  River  (of  North,)  1 21,  122,  123. 

Red  River  (of  Texas),  167. 

Red  River  settlement,  4. 

Red  Sleeves,  176. 

Red  Sleeves  Creek,  176. 


Reed,  John,  33. 

Reid  {See  Reed,  J.),  88. 

Reid's  River  {see  Payette  River, 
107). 

Reynolds,  A.  E.,  189. 

Richardson,  Dr.,  121. 

Rio  del  Norte,  205. 

Rio  Grande,  205. 

Rivers:  Arkansas,  128,  129,  130,  189; 
Arkansor,  278;  Arrow,  333;  Bear, 
112;  Beaver,  349;  Box  Elder,  336; 
Canadian,  138;  Cimarron,  167; 
Clark's  Fork,  17;  Columbia,  3,  et 
seq.;  Columbia,  Forks  of,  26;  Cow- 
litz, 72;  Deep,  334;  Eagle,  350; 
Flathead,  102;  Flat  Willow,  336, 
338;  Fontaine-qui-bouille,  208; 
Fourchette,  348;  Eraser,  23;  God- 
din,  104,  105,  116;  Greenhorn, 
152,  208;  Huerfano,  208;  Judith, 
326,  327,  335;  Knife,  304;  Lewis 
Fork,  17,  90;  Little  Blackfoot,  356; 
Little  Missouri,  316,  3i7;Malades, 
105,  112;  Marias,  356;  Missouri, 
332;  Musselshell,  336,  337,  339, 
348,  357;  North  Platte,  183;  Oak- 
inacken,  19;  Okanagan,  19,  et  seq.; 
Oregon,  4;  Pawnee  Fork,  176,  260; 
Payette,  107;  Pisscow,  19;  Plum, 
335;  Porcupine,  340,  343;  Poshett, 
348;  Purgatoire,  129,  130,  157, 
171;  Red  (of  North),  121, 122,  123; 
Red  (of  Texas),  167;  Red  Sleeves, 
176;  Reid's  {See  Payette),  107; 
Rio  del  Norte,  205;  Rio  Grande, 
205;  Riviere  aux  Malades,  105, 
112;  Saint  Vrain's  Fork,  138; 
Salmon,  104;  Sa-mick-a-meigh,  31; 
Skam-naugh,  76;  Smilkameen,  31; 
Snake,  25;  Teton,  356;  Walnut, 
155;  Willamette,  58;  Willow,  334; 
Wolf,  334;  Yellowstone,  281,  306. 

Riviere  aux  Malades,  105,  112. 

Rocky  Mountain  House,  121. 

Ross,  Alexander,  3,  et  passim. 


Index 


373 


Rowan,  Mr.,  121. 

Running  down  a  calf,  314. 

Russell,  Colonel,  264. 

Russian  America,  5. 

Ruxton,  George  Frederick,  191,  193. 

Sagacity  of  wolves,  208. 
Sage  grouse,  64. 
St.  Louis,  194. 
St.  Vrain,  Ceran,  130. 
St.  Vrain  (death  of  C),  158. 
St.  Vrain,  Felix,  158. 
St.  Vrain's  Fork,  138. 
Salmon  River,  104. 
Sa-mick-a-meigh  River,  31. 
Sand  Creek  massacre,  249. 
Sandwich  Islanders,  58. 
Sandwich  Islands,  7. 
San  Fernandez,  145. 
San  Fernando,  142. 
Santa  Anna,  General,  195. 
Santa  Fe,  129,  et  seq. 
Santa  Fe  trail,  127. 
Saulteaux,  100. 
Scalp  dance,  256. 
Seaton,  Alfred,  33. 
Sedgwick,  Major,  155. 
Shahaptin,  16,  17. 
Shaved  Head,  138. 
Shaw-ha-ap-tens  {see  Shahaptin), 
Shawnees,  171,  175. 
She-Whaps,  23,  27,  61,  64. 
"Short  Man,  The,"  326. 
Shoshoni,  88,  178. 
Simplicity  of  Indians,  19. 
Simpson,  Governor,  95,  117,  121. 
Sioux,  329,  335. 
Skam-naugh  River,  76. 
Skunk,  adventure  with,  20. 
Small  Robe  band  (Piegan),  355. 
Smallpox  at  Bent's  Fort,  131. 
Smilkameen  River,  31. 
Smith,  Green  Clay,  327. 
Smith,  John,  179,  248,  252,  253,  254, 
255- 


Snake  Indians,  25,  72,  81,  84,  85,  88, 

90,  100. 
Snake  River,  25. 
Solitary    Ilmiter,     The,     275,     277, 

321. 
Spokane  House,  95,  100. 
Spokanes,  100. 
Spotted  Horse,  344. 
Staked  Plains,  167. 
Star  Robe,  350,  358. 
Stevens,  Governor  I.  I.,  326. 
Stuart,  Alexander,  42,  43. 
Stuart,  David,  6,  22,  25,  26,  27. 
Stuart,  Robert,  24,  25,  27. 
Suhtai,  167. 

Tailing  the  bull,  200. 

Taos,  129,  137,  145. 

Teton  River,  356. 

Thompson,  David,  13,  15,  17. 

Thorn,  Captain,  7,  9,  24. 

Three  Tetons,  90,  115. 

Thunder  Birds,  187. 

"Tod  Issac,"  36. 

To'hau-sen,  138,  155. 

"Tonquin,"  7,  13,  23. 

Tonquin  Point,  9. 

Trade  for  horses,  182. 

Trade  for  liquor,  181. 

Trade  for  robes,  182. 

Trade,  winter's,  23. 

Trails  of  the  Pathfinders,  24,  31. 

Train-wrecking  by  Cheyennes,  362. 

Trapper's  earnings,  219. 

Trappers'  methods,  79. 

Trapper's  outfit,  216. 

Traps  stolen,  107. 

Travel  by  ox  train,  172. 

Travois  dog,  300. 

Tummatapam,  17. 

Tunica,  353. 

Turley,  147. 

Turley's  Ranch,  147. 

Turtle  Mountains,  316. 

"Twins,  The,"  71. 


374 


Ind 


ex 


Union,  Fort,  290,  306,  307,  309,  320, 

346. 
Upson,  Gad.  E.,  357. 

Valley,  John  Day's,  104,  105. 

Vasquez,  Benito,  130. 

Vera  Cruz,  194. 

Vermilion,  Fort,  289. 

Vide  Poche,  242. 

Vigil,  144. 

Vi-hiu-nis,  Little  Chief,  179. 

Wah-To-Yah    and   the    Taos   Trail, 

237- 
Walla  Walla,  27. 
Walla  Walla  Indians,  17,  82. 
Walnut  Creek,  155. 
War-are-ree-kas,  89,  in. 
War  of  1812,  36. 
Wa-si'  cha-chischi'-Ia,  128. 
Westport,  Mo.,  141,  171,  238. 
White  Cow  Woman,  168. 
White  goat,  19. 
VV'hite  River  Post,  303,  304. 
White  Thunder,  130. 


Willamette  River,  58. 

William,    Fort    (Bent's),    130,    171, 

248. 
William,  Fort  (N.  W.  Co.),  42. 
Williams,  Bill,  228,  294,  325. 
Willow  Creek,  334. 
Winnipeg,  5. 
Winter  storm,  211. 
Wohk'po-hiim',  White  Horse,  179. 
Wolf  Creek,  334. 
Wolf-shooting,  68. 
Wolverine,  229. 
Wolves,  sagacity  of,  208. 
Wolves,  sleeping,  300. 
Wolves,  ways  of,  54. 
Work  of  a  fur  trader,  54. 
Wounded  bull,  246. 
Wo-wihph'pai-i-sih',    Big    Nostrils, 

179. 
Wy-am-pams,  16. 
Wyandottes,  239. 

Yellow  Woman,  130. 
Yellowstone  National  Park,  90. 
Yellowstone  River,  281,  306. 


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